so i went down to red clay this weekend, knowing already that my friends wouldn't be there on account of certain, we can call it family drama, well because that's what it is. and it just wasn't the same without them there, and the people who were there, they weren't from here, and they weren't as friendly towards me, except a few. one woman, i heard her call my friends "riff raff" in reply to somebody else commenting on what a good job they'd done this year. she didn't know they were my friends she was talking about. regardless, there wasn't that feeling of community like there usually was the other times i went there before, it was all just a show, put-on. and they did do a good job, it was all prettied up, drew in a lot more people, but not any of the people who should have been there, the ones for whom red clay is their/our church. i felt like an emissary in a way, for them, the ones who weren't there this time because i was being treated like i didn't belong by the ones who came from north carolina to put on a show for the local white people. ugh

and there wasn't any drumming... wtf is up with that?

Little Cedar Mountain

for the "official" TVA government line of bullshit, click either of these links:

http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports/littlecedar2/index.htm
http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports/littlecedar/


From local Channel 9 website:

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/tva_968032___article.html/cedar_mountain.html


TVA Discusses Management of Controversial Little Cedar Mtn. Land

April 18, 2008 - 10:21AM

Richard Simms

TVA officials will be holding a public tour of a new interpretive trail at Little Cedar Mountain Small Wild Area and TVA's resource management plan for the Lower Nickajack Properties.

The area has been the subject of much controversy in recent years as developers sought more than than 600 acres of public land for an exclusive golf course and housing development. (link - s)

The TVA Board finally voted to sell the land to developer John Thornton in a trade-off deal after Thornton purchased several other tracts of lakefront property to offer in a barter deal for the Little Cedar Tract.

However TVA retained ownership of the area known as Little Cedar Mountain just South of I-24 at the Nickajack Dam Exit where the public interpretive trail will be located.

In addition, TVA is making plans for the future management of other tracts obtained in the deal known as Burns Island, the Boyd Farm and Big Cedar Mountain.

DETAILS

WHAT:
Discussion and tour of new interpretive trail at Little Cedar Mountain Small Wild Area and TVA's resource management plan for the Lower Nickajack Properties.

WHO:
TVA Endangered Species Biologist Hill Henry and TVA Watershed Team Representative Andy Lawson

WHEN:
10 a.m., Tuesday, April 22 (please note the date this story was aired - s)

WHERE:
Meet at Nickajack Dam

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
TVA has received inquiries from several organizations and the public regarding the strategy for using property acquired during TVA's Supplemental Environmental Assessment at Little Cedar Mountain in Marion County, Tenn. TVA is developing a comprehensive resource management plan on four parcels in the vicinity of Nickajack Dam -- collectively referred to as the Lower Nickajack Properties. They include Boyd's Farm, Burn's Island, Cedar Mountain tracts and TVA's Little Cedar Mountain Small Wild Area. The plan being developed defines proposed management goals, objectives, and activities designed to protect cultural and natural resources and improve public access on each tract.

Hill Henry and Andy Lawson will conduct a guided tour of the new interpretive trail at Little Cedar Mountain Small Wild Area, discuss stabilization of Burn's Island and plans for the use and access of the Boyd's Farm property.

The activities will occur rain or shine.


(also please note the lack of any mention of Native American artifacts, including bones and human remains, that have been found in the area. Also the lack of mention of any concerns regarding such artifacts. - s)

The Longest Walk 2

The Longest Walk 2 (if link doesn't work, make sure the www is in there)

On Feb. 11th, Longest Walk participants will embark on a 5 month journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11th. The Longest Walk south route is being led by AIM co-founder Dennis J. Banks. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth, sacred site issues, and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original longest walk.

...

The Longest Walk is open to people of all nations and cultures. You will be asked to fill out a registration form and abide by the code of conduct/guidelines/principles of unity.

The Longest Walk 2 – Southern Route is being organized and led by American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis J. Banks, elders and original 1978 Walkers. Communities welcoming the Longest Walk 2-Southern Route are: Rumsey Wintun, Three Rivers, Santa Rosa Tachi, Mojave, Chumash, United Farm Workers, Navajo Nation, Houma Nation and the Choctaw to name a few. The Nipponzan Miyohoji Buddhists from Japan will be joining The Longest Walk 2 - Southern Route.

The purpose of the Southern route is to continue and carry the message from the Longest Walk of 1978: "The Longest Walk is an Indian spiritual walk, a historical walk; and it is a walk for educational awareness to the American and the world communities about the concerns of American Indian people." The Longest Walk 2 is walking to create awareness about the environment. We are walking to protect sacred sites in our country. We are walking to promote positive change in our world.

The Longest Walk 2 is a peaceful, spiritual effort to engage with the public about restoring harmony with the environment by leading an effort to clean up the lands surrounding our highways. We will be launching The Clean Up Mother Earth Campaign where our Longest Walk participants will work together to clean up our country's highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route. This monumental task will engage Walkers in a global effort at a grassroots level to promote harmony with our delicate environment. A rotating team of walkers will pick up trash along the way with trash pokers leaving a healthy trail in their path.

We take up this task to walk in a manner befitting our nations. We shall walk for the Seventh Generation, for peace, for justice, for healing of Mother Earth, for the healing of our people suffering from diabetes, heart conditions and other diseases.

We are Cleaning Up Mother Earth mile-by-mile, village-to-village, city-to-city, state-to-state and shore-to-shore from Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. We walk with the message: All Life is Sacred.

...

If you are interested in walking please be sure to read the following pages on our website:
FAQ's
Walker Resources Page
First-Aid Zine for Walkers (Right Click to download 1.4mb pdf)
If you do decide to register for the walk you will receive an orientation packet upon completion of your registration. Currently we are registering only volunteers, who can walk the whole way as well. You can fill that out online here.
Here is a Link to the Northern Route Overview

on freedom, revistited

would like to share with you all a little something I posted here:
http://friendstacy.gaia.com/blog/2008/1/from_lakota_oyate_with_comments

Greetings, everyone. I have many new friends here, you might not have read much of what I like to blog about. I'm an anarchist. I don't believe in governmental rule, period. This is how I interpret those truths revealed to me by my ancestors when I seek within for the answers. My ancestors, for the most part, are Lakota. I have to believe that there are other people in this world that share my viewpoint, but I can only take it on faith that they do, as they never replied when I asked for their assistance in the past. So this is my own personal truth, truth I found when I look within for answers. It does not come from the teachings of any human person, any book of ancient wisdom, any religious doctrine or political treatise.

I speak only for myself, from my heart. A very human heart. I believe in freedom. I believe it can really work, people can be free if they so choose to be. It is up to each individual person to make that decision, it cannot be made for them by others. THIS is my big problem with the world we live in today. Our decisions are all pre-made by those in control. We aren't granted autonomy, but sometimes the illusion of a choice is offered us. That makes people feel a little better and helps them sleep at night. I feel this current situation is unacceptable! I don't want the illusion of choices between options which represent false distinctions and are really all the same.

so, given the choice between Russel Mean's REPUBLIC and Bush's tyranny, who can possibly choose Bush? wrong. a new republic means nothing changes. a new republic means that Plato's plan for humanity is still in place. Government control of the people is not an option, no matter how sugar-coated it might be. In order to explain myself, I have to start with Plato. and we have to look into conspiracy theories that might make us uncomfortable. We have to learn about the globalist ruling elite, those few who run the whole show. And we have to search for truth in history, because most of it is lies. But most importantly, we have to break free of the operant conditioning from the indoctrination centers we know as schools and church.

We have to question our education first of all!! We must question all of it, every thing we hold to be true. We must ask "why do I believe this is true?" and if the answer is only because they told me to believe it, or if they threatened me with horribleness if I chose not to believe it, that means there are more questions that need to be asked.

My quest is not one for answers, but rather one for QUESTIONS!! I'm nowhere near learning Truth and Wisdom, or reaching some imaginary "enlightenment" - not me!! I'm still tearing down the false ideas I always thought were true. Things I was misled to believe. And as the lies crumble down, truth is left standing tall and strong and permanent.

Problem is, where those lies originated. The lies are told by those who seek to rule. They must lie to us in order to make us believe we want to be ruled. the parallels between politics and domestic violence are horrendous. They tell us we are stupid. They beat it into our brains with television and the non-stop onslaught of advertisements telling us to buy something. What they want us to buy aren't just the crap goods made by child slave labor in countries far far away. What they want us to buy is the whole package, this system that makes us slaves to the few in charge. and they're real good at it, too. Been doing it this way over 2000 years!

They make all decisions for us. Here are your rules, The Law. OBEY. Do not question authority, ever! If you do, horrible horrible things will happen to you. You might even spend eternity burning in hell. Plato planned it all out this way, check it out. The Republic isn't a difficult read, and you can find it online for free or at any public library. Plato's plan was to make the idea of the "good of the group" more important than anything else in society. this is how they get us to choose not to decide. Yes, it is a choice we make when we give the power to make decisions over to an authority. And I'm not saying that is always wrong. What I'm saying is that it is wrong when we are lied to in order to get us to make that choice. I'm saying it is wrong when someone chooses to rule others. What needs to happen is each person needs the freedom to make their own decisions, including the decision to follow any given leader at any given time for any given reason of their own. What needs to happen is for people to just simply start making their own decisions.

I do very strongly believe that people have the ability to be self-governing and not need government rule. Lots of other people have believed this throughout history, too. Lots of very intelligent, very highly respected people. Why is it that we still have government? What are we so afraid of that we can't trust ourselves and our fellow humans?

and back to Plato, just one last time. He left us a way out. Not by what is in The Republic, but what is missing from it. There is no mention of Socrates' Daimonion, his inner guiding voice, in all of The Republic. But it is a major part of most all other Socratic dialogues. This is our way out!! All we gotta do is listen to that inner voice that tells us right from wrong. The answer is right before us, ALL of us, each and every one! The only possible place you will ever find Truth, is from looking within. It's not from following the right poitician who claims to be fighting the corrupt system that supports his own extravagant way of life, or the right general into battle. It's not from listening to the right guru or believing in the right god. It's not from praying the right way or meditating on the right mountain or with the right people. It's something each person must decide for themselves.

It's up to you. What kind of world do your children deserve to inherit? Make it happen. Don't do what anyone else tells you to do, do what your heart says is right.

The Lakota "Indians" Secede from the Union!!

Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US



WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.

The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.

The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.

Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.

"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.

"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," said Means.

The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.

Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row," Means said.

One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.

The US "annexation" of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people," said Means.

Oppression at the hands of the US government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies -- less than 44 years -- in the world.

Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.

"Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young.

"We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA

Thunderbird

as told to me by my Mom, well, kinda. I'm not as good a storyteller as she. Any mistakes in telling this story are mine, not hers.

A long long time ago, three children, a girl and her two brothers, were sent over the mountain to bring their grandmother a gift from their mother. Grandmother was ill and mother knew the right plants to help her heal. So the children took the plants over the mountain to the other side where Grandmother lived. Grandmother got well, and the children undertook the journey back home.

When they returned to their home, they found their village burnt to the ground, and all the people and all the animals slaughtered. The oldest son, who by tradition was responsible for handling the death of his parents was very distraught. He was able to make arrangements for the funeral, this he did not neglect, but his little brother and sister thought he should do something about those responsible for what happened, revenge.

Older brother was lost in his grief and unable to function following the funeral, he would just sit and stare into the fire, rocking back and forth. So Little Brother decided to go back up the mountain and ask Thunderbird to help him enact revenge against the tribe who destroyed their village. When he told Little Sister of his plans, she got it in her head to go with him, and nothing he could say would discourage her. They had nobody left but each other.

So Little Brother and Little Sister fasted and sweated and went back up the mountain to ask Thunderbird for his help. Thunderbird heard their prayers. He came to them in a fog (humans are unable to gaze upon Thunderbird without damaging their mind) and he said to them, "I will grant you some of my thunder to do with as you wish. But with it comes a warning. You are to use your thunder to bring peace to this land, otherwise it will destroy everything you hold dear."

Tear Dress

So I was interested in perhaps making a tear dress, or something similar, anyway...

Found lots of neat information online. Doesn't seem so difficult, it fits with the way I sew already. But here's my problem. It's with this: "The Official Women’s Dress Of The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma" link There's a long list of rules!

Hope I don't upset too many people if I make my own version of these tear dresses, but don't follow all the rules. I mean, it never was authentic to begin with, fashions change, tastes change, and NOBODY tells me how to dress. I really love the style, it certainly looks easy enough, and most definitely comfortable! Plus, it would go nicely with my aprons.

a spring in my step

Now I understand the above phrase.

I had so much fun at the powwow this weekend over at Audubon Acres. Friday, I did a lot of talking. Saturday, I did a lot of listening. Sunday, I danced and shared some stories. I stomped my feet and had a blast! I noticed something really strange. I noticed that if you stomp exactly in time with the drum, the earth bounces your feet back up and it's much easier. That's how those people out west can stomp all night long, the earth is bouncing their feet for them.

When you see someone walking with a spring in their step, it's because they are following the beat of their inner drum. When you see this big goofy grin on my face that's because it's so much fun!

things Grampa says, part 3

I got rather upset that nobody wanted to talk about Hiroshima, and called Grampa. I said nobody wants to talk about what happened, but how can we make sure it never happens again if we don't talk about history and learn from it? He said to me that he's given up on changing the world, that he used to think he could make a difference. He said, "World War One was supposed to make the world safe for Democracy. World War Two was the war to end all wars. And look where we are today!" I told him that he has made a huge difference in many people's lives, probably way more than he realizes, and that's all that counts.

Things Grampa Says, part 2

When I first became a mother, it was pretty rough on me. I was experiencing great trauma and depression, and everyone was telling me what to do. Usually, what they told me to do was in conflict with what my heart was telling me. I got especially upset after going with my baby and my mother to visit my grandparents. I didn't say anything at the time, but after I got home I talked to Grampa on the phone about how upset it made me that Mom and Gramma (and others as well) kept telling me what to do all the time, as if I weren't capable of being a mother in my own right, as if my instincts weren't good enough, as if I were doing everything wrong because I wasn't doing it the way they did it with their babies. Grampa got kinda quiet, then simply said to me, "Everyone's gotta kill their own snakes." He told me I had the right to make my own mistakes, and that he knew I wasn't going to do anything to harm my baby. I have found many occassions since then to use his phrase. I really like that one.

things Grampa says, part 1

My nose?
I don't mind it.
I'm behind it.
It's those in front I offend.

the significance of 4/7/47

My father was born 4/7/47. When he became ill...

back up a minute to elaborate...

Dad was drafted into the VietNam War. It was at his physical they found that he suffered from amyotrophic lateral schlerosis (ALS), aka Lou Gehrig's Disease. His father died way too young of "paralysis" as did many other men in the family, going way way back. He was labeled 4F and did not serve time in the war. That's a very good thing. Dad was often a violently tempered person, especially when he had been drinking, though terrified of firearms of any sort. I remember one time he screamed like a woman in an old B terror movie when a family friend had a handgun in his truck. Okay, so he had ALS, and the death sentence that comes with it.

He was also gay and so self-centered that even though he was married (in spirit if not on paper) to a wonderful man, it wasn't beyond him to give freely of himself to whomever it pleased him to do so. Like far too many other gay men in the 80's, he contracted HIV which soon exploded into full blown AIDS.

During a medical trial in which he participated, it had been discovered that dextromethorphan (cough syrup) not only stopped the progression of his symptoms of ALS but also made them go away. Apparently there weren't enough people who had this benefit from taking the medication, and it was never an approved treatment, though Dad continued to take it until he began AIDS treatments many years later. Stopping the dm, ALS quickly progressed, eventually affecting not only his speech and motor skills, but his heart as well.

He was a very sick man by the age of 46 when he passed away. From the time Mom left him up to the end, I spoke with him nearly every Saturday morning on the phone. It had been an ongoing subject of conversation between us that 47 was a magic number for him, and if he could hang on until his 47th birthday, he would beat the disease(s) plaguing him. He didn't quite make it.

My Daddy

So, in honor of his birthday, and perhaps in attempt to help hold myself together today, I'm going to post about Dad. He was an interesting character, to say the least. Far from perfect, his one flaw was his arrogance and self-centeredness (is that even a word?). But when he became terminally ill, for the first time in his life, he started thinking about other people besides himself. He learned humanity and compassion, there at the very end. And I think that makes it that much harder to not have him around anymore.

Robert Scott Coleman was born April 7, 1947 (that's 4/7/47 - this is important, pay attention) in rural Virginia. He was a very beautiful child, as he later became a very beautiful adult, and was also exceptionally bright, oh, and gay. Not a great environment for a beautiful gay boy to grow up in, I'm sure. His father died when he was very young, and everyone says that's why his mother was so crazy and abusive. I don't know, but I didn't know her back then either. I remember looking at old photos when I was quite small and asking him who the pretty little girl was. Dad and Gramma just laughed that loud horsey laugh they shared, and told me it was my Daddy. So, naturally, I thought my father must have been a little girl when he was young. He always got a huge kick out of it when I asked him questions that began with "when you were a little girl..."

I have no doubt that my parents really loved each other, as far as either of them was able. But they were very young, and it takes more than love to keep a marriage together. I remember sitting by my bedroom window every day there at the married student housing at Yale, looking up the hill into the parking lot, hoping Mom wouldn't decide not to come home. And every evening, I would see her headlights and know she hadn't been pushed past her limit just yet. What pushed her past that limit was coming home early and catching him in bed with his male lover, with us kids in the next room. To this day, she denies every bad thing that I remember ever happened in my childhood, and there was lots of bad. There was good too, and I remember each and every bit of good very clearly, but Daddy had a drinking problem and like I said, never thought of anyone but himself, and never knew anything about parenting except his mother's abusive style of violent punishment and hair-trigger temper.

So Mom packed the car and took us back to Virginia that night. It must have been very hard on her, being a single parent in the 1970's, but it couldn't have been as hard on her as it was on us kids when the parents of the other kids in school found out our father was gay and wouldn't let us play with their children (I still refer to that particular small town in Virginia, near Fredericksburg, as "bigot-town" - and they call themselves a village!). At that point, I still knew nothing about homosexuality, and "gay" was just a word, the worst thing you could call someone else, but I had no idea what it meant. To my point of view, the abuse suffered at the hands of other children was far worse than anything my parents ever did to me.

Dad continued his graduate studies at Yale Divinity School until he ran out of classes to take and they made him graduate... with a 4.0 average, no less! After we left, he and Doug had moved into a cozy little apartment over a small grocery store on Cumberland Avenue in New Haven. Dad worked as a ground's keeper for this creepy billionaire old dude who seemed to really enjoy watching him work without a shirt on, while studying about religion. He had been a Methodist minister back in Virginia, before moving to Connecticut to attend Yale. At one point, later in his life, when I was in college and contemplating studying philosophy or religion (I did eventually go back to school and earn a degree in philosophy after his death), he told me that the more he learned about Christianity, the less he agreed with it.

Upon graduating with the first of what would become three different master's degrees, he moved with Doug to Brooklyn to work at the Botanic Garden. While there, he took classes at the Bronx Botanic Garden (I think) and earned a degree in horticultural therapy, and had the job of keeping up the therapy garden for disabled visitors to the BBG as well as the children's garden. I think he also worked in the library there at some point, but my memory isn't so clear, maybe Doug worked in the library. My favorite part was that the therapy garden was designed to accommodate wheelchairs, with raised plantings, but also was made for blind people with plants that you could experience with your other senses such as smell, touch, and even hearing.

and that takes us up to about 1980, or maybe more like 1983 or 4...