Stir Crazy! Episode #35: America, Land of Broken Promises

1. awesome show Kim! please have this panel on as a regular bunch on all things Indigenous, and really hope the Real News covers the plight of Indigenous americans,alaskans and Hawaiians more. again great panel and I know two Aboriginal Australians who'd be great for the Real News to invite check out Robert Eggington and his two speeches Racism in Global Context and Wongi My Bardip and a young Aboriginal journalist called Amy McQuire and Chris Graham he's a white journalist but he used to cover Aboriginal issues in a magazine Tracker and the National Indigenous times solely dedicated to Aboriginal Affairs and he still covers those issues but other Australian domestic and international issues at a brilliant website called New Matilda. and of course John Pilger and anyone from the WSWS/Socialist Equality Party.

2. time to dismantle the entire system. Build something new, not based upon capitalism, greed, genocide, racism, fascism, and violence.

3. you do realze how racists y'all sound, right?

4. considering no one talks about personal responsibility at all i am going to assume things are pretty much going the way native americanss like the most.

5. Get into contact with The Red Nation!

6. This is a reply from the Prime Minister of Canada: Subject: Human Rights

   Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2000 08:41:45 -0500

   From: pm@pm.gc.ca

   To: RobertPierson37@netscape.net

   CC: mina10@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

   On behalf of the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving mail on subjects of importance to Canadians.

   Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Axworthy so that he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration.

   L.A. Lavell
   Executive Correspondence Officer
   Agent de correspondance
   de la haute direction

   >>> <RobertPierson37@netscape.net> 05-07-00 4:22:14 AM >>>
   Dear Prime Minister Jean Chretien

   I am writing to you because I have tried complaining about the genocide of Native American's, and other human rights abuses to the U.N., Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and others, but for some reason, the U.S. is above criticism for human rights abuses.

   After my first arrest for peacefully protesting the genocidal treatment of Native American's by the U.S. (case #934775 in the Harris County Texas Court at Law #7 in February of 1988) I sought political asylum in Canada (Adjucation file #9544-2011, CIC file #3149-5009) because the Houston Police after my conviction came to my home broke down the door and put cocked guns to my and my wife's heads. They also pointed cocked guns at my two children when they moved under the blanket where they were sleeping.

   I was put into a police car and checked for warrants. They could not find any, but found a warrant for traffic tickets for a Frank Pirce, and said that was good enough and arrested me. I was taken to jail and beaten so badly that I was taken to Ben Taub Hospital. The Houston Police then said it was all a big mistake and released me from custody while I was in the Hospital.

   I was denied political asylum in Canada and had to return to the U.S. In April of 1993 I was again arrested for a peaceful protest against genocide in the office of Senator Arlen Specter. I thought a Jewish senator would perhaps be less inclined to persecute a political protester, and more inclined to stop genocide.

   I was arrested for disorderly conduct a misdemeanor. I was given a twenty-five thousand dollar straight bond, meaning I would have to pay that much in cash to get out of jail. The IRS at the same time took all my pay except for four hundred dollars a month, and my children were taken from us in Docket #J1257-60, Family Case #65,214 In the Court of Common Pleas, Family Division, Allegheny county.

   The judge kept our children despite the fact that the only reason the state had for taking our children was their claim that our children were without parental supervision because we were both in jail. My wife was in court trying to get our children back, so the judge knew this was a lie. The judge also rejected a motion to turn jurisdiction over to the Council of Three Rivers as required by the Indian Child Welfare Act.

   I went on a hunger strike and was told by the Allegheny county jail psychiatrist that she was not going to allow a political prisoner to die in her jail. I was committed to the Mayview State Mental Hospital because she said that I had an obsession with political activism that made me a danger to myself.

   After I was released from jail and an investigation was conducted by the State Commission on Judicial conduct judge Stassburger was replaced by judge Baer. He said that what happened before was water under the bridge and that he would return our children when we had a place to live. We were homeless because of the IRS levy. The prosecutor refused to try my disorderly conduct case and it was dismissed.

   I went to my congressman's office to get arrested again and his office (Rick Santorum) immediately got the IRS to raise my pay released from levy to nine hundred dollars a month. All we could get was a house that was not fit for human habitation, but they gave us our two youngest children back despite this.

   In 1995 Senator Phil Gramm got the IRS to remove the levy and return seven thousand dollars that they had illegally seized from us.

   Last year I was arrested again for peacefully protesting the death penalty in Case #9918939. All these cases are a matter of public record, except for when they took my children. I was of course again beaten.

   While serving a 90 day sentence for this Human Rights Watch called upon China to release all peaceful political prisoners. They sent me a letter saying that they could not help me. The Houston Chronicle which knew about my situation but ignored it printed a cartoon criticizing China's treatment of political prisoners at the same time I was being held under inhumane conditions and subjected to psychological torture.

7. I have been fighting for a long time, this is one e-mail I sent:

   One final thing about “American principles and leadership” America is a nation of thieves, and all of America except for a few Indian Concentration Camps’ I mean Reservations are stolen property. And the American government, with the blessing of the American people, are determined to wipe out indigenous peoples and their cultures and steal the last Indian lands.

   This may sound great to some white Americans but there is one little fly in the ointment. The fact is, no matter your original race or nationality, if you live in America and you do an archeological dig in your back yard what you will find on the land that you live on and are a citizen of is not ancient Chinese artifacts, or ancient Irish, English, African, Middle Easterner, or any other culture. What you may find instead is ancient artifacts belonging to the Sioux, Nez Perce, Apache or perhaps one of the numerous other nations that have been completely wiped out by our noble and righteous American government, and it’s equally noble and righteous people. The point is if you are an American of any race the deepest cultural and historic roots of the land you live on is Native American.

   A tree can be cut down to the ground, but as long as its roots are alive the tree can come back. On the other hand, if you kill the roots, the tree dies period, regardless of how good the rest of the tree looks. Only a fool would attempt to kill their own roots, and only a bigger fool would follow such a suicidal, immoral, and short-sighted country.

   To quote Chief Joseph “Say to us if you can say it, that you were sent by the Creative Power to talk to us. Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit. If I thought you were sent by the Creator I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me. Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land. I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilege to live on yours.” . . .

   Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men [Ollokot] is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are–perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.–Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perces …

   Bureaucrats and Christian gentlemen visited them frequently, uttering words of sympathy and writing endless reports to various organizations. Joseph was allowed to visit Washington where he met all the great chiefs of government. "They all say they are my friends." he said, "and that I shall have justice, but while their mouths all talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for my people. . . . General Miles promised that we might return to our own country. I believed General Miles, or I never would have surrendered."

   He then made an impassioned appeal for justice: "I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. . . . Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and broken promises. . . . You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free men should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. . . . I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.

   Let me be a free man–free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself–and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty."

   But no one listened. They sent Joseph back to Indian Territory, and there he remained until 1885. In that year, only 287 captive Nez Perces were still alive, most of them too young to remember their previous life of freedom, or too old and sick and broken in spirit to threaten the mighty power of the United States. Some of the survivors were permitted to return to their people's reservation at Lapwai. Chief Joseph and about 150 others were considered too dangerous to be penned up with other Nez Perces, whom they might influence. The government shipped them to Nespelem on the Colville Reservation in Washington, and there they lived out their lives in exile. When Joseph died on September 21, 1904, the agency physician reported the cause of death as "a broken heart."(Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown)

   Robert Pierson
   1322 Hitchin Lane
   Channelview, Texas

8. "America, Land of broken promises" The ADOS Blk community know what that's like. Andrew Johnson reneged on Special Field Order 15 that would've made us whole. We wouldn't be here 150 plus years later still addressing this.

9. Leave the American Indians alone, let them live in peace and govern themselves…….

10. Thank you Johnnie Jae…Strong Medicine.

11. Kim at 35:00 you made a false statement that as a black woman you should know better ….you said it is just Native Americans who have firsthand experience with biological warfare waged against them intentionally. Please read Medical Apartheid Book by Harriet A. Washington
    Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present 

    Black Americans experienced this too in several different horrific ways. No I disrespect but know your own history first and foremost.

12. "We the people out of many one".. AMERICANA. I Am going  to run for the Congress in the next midterm and pledge to donate my salary to Initiative Homelessness and live that way and challenge others all across this great land to do the same. When we can put others above ourselves then we will see a world of change. "AMERICANA" A new day a better way TRUTH where objectives are clear and concise you don't necessarily need a leader you just need mass participation for the greater good. We  the 99% Awakening Consciousness rising up to defeat Babylon and now realizes that our power lies in our numbers and the 1% world wide see the hand writing on the wall and know if they aren't willing to relent from their greedy political/corporate vulture capitalism then the masses who have been systematically cheated for so long can come in and take it all away from them and correct the balance sheets so shewed towards inequality and injustice from the beginning of time. Talk is cheap and now it's time for actions to walk the talk. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness for ALL.

13. Kim I want to thank you 🙏 very much for choosing this topic. I thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️ your show is the best and better than the men hosting the show You are a great Reporter and Journalist again Thank You 🙏 Running Bear 🐻🐻🐻🐻from the Eastern Cherokee Tribe in North Carolina

14. Johnnie is my voice in this.

15. SUWOOo🤟

16. So the Indians didn't fight each other and America didn't become "raggedy" until the white Christian Europeans got here, huh?

17. France or Germany is another country. SD is 1 of our states. It too should follow state and federal guidelines and
    Our Constitution

18. "We're gonna talk shit about the news!" Yeah. The "Real News" has really turned into a tedious pile of crap since they forced out Paul Jay. I'm done, send a flare up when you're serious again.

19. It's so very sad that our government ignores the indigenous problems but is quick to respond when these Natives try to protect themselves. Our whole country would be better off if Europeans had learned from indigenous peoples rather than forcing them to accommodate to European ideas. As an great-granddaughter of an Irish immigrant, please accept my support & appreciation for you.

20. Now they need to erradicate humanity..thats their goal..

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