#3: FEATURED POST: (snap draft) What is Next? An Open Letter

May 2009

What is Next?
A Proposal to Create an Intertribal Forum that Promotes an Intelligent Community-Based Strategy for the Self-Determination Movement

An Open Letter to

• American Indian College Fund (AICF)
• American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC)
• American Indian Studies Consortium (AISC)
• Indian Affairs (BIA/BIE)
• International Indigenous Treaty Council (IITC)
• National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
• National Indian Education Association (NIEA)
• National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA)
• Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA)
• Native American Rights Fund (NARF)

cc:

• All Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples
• All Tribal popular movements
• All Self-Determination Tribal-Based Groups and Organizations

#1: NEW LOOK

I am revising the look of the “Last Woman” blog. Several entries will be reposted under new titles in my attempt to provide a more coherent organization of my writings and posts. There will be a few other changes, too. Thank you all for your support, comments, suggestions, and emails since I created this blog in June 2008.

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#25: Checkpoint 2 – A General Note on Checkpoints

(This was originally posted June 2008)

(Graffiti is one response to the Israel-constructed Apartheid Wall. This stenciled image is at a Ramallah checkpoint. Photo taken by Julia Good Fox, June 2008.)

OCCUPIED WEST BANK — Let’s be clear about this. The Israeli checkpoint system in the West Bank is an absolutely ruthless act of anger, viciousness, and power. It is generally said that the Israeli system is designed to control Palestinian movement. Yet any international’s experience with the system will confirm that the Israelis have set up the routine as an attempt to dehumanize the Palestinians. The Israelis use the simple experience and necessity of travel as another opportunity to expose the Palestinians to feelings of humiliation and powerlessness and, at times, to even ensure their deaths. Such is a life spent in occupation and under Apartheid.

#24: Mt. Taylor (media advisory)

(Thank you for sharing this, Manny Pino.)

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2009

Contact:
Governor Chandler Sanchez, Pueblo of Acoma, Office of the Governor (505) 552-6604
Governor John E. Antonio, Sr., Pueblo of Laguna, Office of the Governor (505) 552-6654
Governor Norman Cooeyate, Pueblo of Zuni, Office of the Governor (505) 782-7000
The Hopi Tribe, Office of the Chairman, (928) 734-2441
Vice President Ben Shelly, Navajo Nation, Office of the President and Vice President (928) 255-2132

Tribes Applaud Permanent Mount Taylor Traditional Cultural Property Designation

SANTA FE, N.M. – Tribal leaders commended the decision of the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee to permanently designate Mount Taylor as a Traditional Cultural Property today.

#23: Advice from an “Old Mama”

Recently, I had this nugget of insight in my mailbox that I have received permission to share on this site. Maybe it will prove helpful for others, too:

“You are not running with the pack. Pure and simple.

When you work for the government, no matter which agency (they are all the same), to ‘get along with the dogs,’ you have to stay in the pack. If you deviate or take another path or begin to stand out – they are going to attack you, or nip at you or simply turn on you and devour you if you are weak . . . that’s why the corrupted or co-opted ones realize the best way to get ahead is to stay with the pack.

#22: Introduction to Immoral Leadership in Indian Country (Part One)

(NOTE: This is the first in a six-part series of essays that reflect and meditate on the problems caused to us by immoral leadership—and solutions to the greed of these individuals. This essay was originally posted in January 2009; the series will be posted on a irregular basis.)

I.

As a child, I read Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This was in the 70s, and those of us of a certain age remember that the Wounded Knee book was everywhere at that time, dog-eared and worn in everyone’s living rooms, cars, kitchen tables. I was in elementary school when I read it, and it was such a painful experience that for years after I did not open another book on American Indian—United States history until my mother introduced me to the historian, Angie Debo, at a small gathering. I then read several of her works, but some time elapsed before I finally could forcefully confront the tribal histories of our genocide and colonization in print form. In the meanwhile, after a viewing of The Hiding Place, I turned to the cultural and political literature of the Shoah, a genre that I read exhaustively for the next couple of decades. It was only near the end of that reading when I realized that it had provided me an indirect way of studying the histories of genocide, occupation, and militarization (along with culpability, complicity, and denial) on our own families, communities, tribes, and nations.

#21: Notes from The Relocation: The Exiles

(This was originally posted November 2008)

Julia Good Fox

(OMAHA, Nebraska) — “The suspension of disbelief” is impossible, sometimes. This phrase, familiar to students of literary and visual theory, is a simple explanation of audience engagement with the performing arts, including film. Yet, there are times when film is meant to be experienced, not as an escape from belief, but as a historical record deliberately crafted for a specific demographic audience. Consider The Exiles, a documentary that had its original premier in 1961 and then sat in the bin for the next 46 years until it was meticulously restored by Ross Lipman and released by Milestone Films into the independent film circuit this year.

The Exiles, a project of USC film graduate student Kent Mackenzie, was shot and edited from 1958 – 1961 and largely funded by friends, family, acquaintances, and a student scholarship. After its 1961 premiers at the Venice and San Francisco Film Festivals, Mackenzie was unable to secure a major distributor. And so The Exiles became one of those cinematic gems remembered only by a handful of historians, film-makers, and the participants involved in its production.

#20: Language: “When It’s Gone, It’s Gone”

This 17-minute documentary was filmed and produced by the Norman (Oklahoma) High School Native American Club. It examines the threatened languages of Indigenous Peoples through the viewpoints of Elders. (The soundtrack is provided by Antithesis.)

#19: KITCHEN ACTIVISM, or, WHY “NO PORK” POTLUCKS?

(This entry was originally posted on 19 September 2008)

YANKTON NATION (MARTY, South Dakota)
LAWRENCE, Kansas

PDF version: Kitchen Activism, or, Why “No Pork” Potlucks?

(Copyleft: This is a copyleft document. Julia Good Fox, the author and editor of this work, has released it into the Indigenous public domain. This applies worldwide. September 2008.)

By Julia Good Fox

(Author’s note: Thank you, Brett Ramey, for reminding me to write this narrative. Brett had suggested that I post a brief “report back” from the initial IAIS No Pork Potluck but I instead ended up writing this essay.)

Several years ago, the Indigenous and American Indian Studies (IAIS) program at Haskell University hosted monthly dinners for students and faculty. Besides providing the chance to socialize off-campus, these evenings also encouraged the discussion of topics significant to Indigenous Peoples and communities within an environment more informal and relaxed than in the classroom. Recently, IAIS decided to revive these get-togethers in the form of “potlucks.” These events are scheduled monthly and all Haskell students are invited to attend.

What does Sovereignty look like? It involves protecting your community and nation. (Photo taken at Yankton, April 2008. Photographer unknown.)

Last month, Dr. Venida Chenault, Haskell Vice President of Academic Affairs, opened her home for our first gathering of the semester. We chose the “No Pork” theme for the potluck to discuss and demonstrate solidarity with the Yankton Nation’s ongoing legal, social, and cultural battles against Long View Farms. “Farm” is a misleading term, however. Long View Farm is a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) and CAFOs are basically factories.

#18: Pawnee Nation Returns to Homelands (video)

Watch the video here (courtesy of Kearney Hub)

“The land has never been our land. It was the Pawnees’.”
- Linda Welsch

(The article below is available at Kearney Hub)

// 06/22/2009 Vast crowds see Pawnee, please Okla. visitors with warm welcome By MIKE KONZ , Hub Managing Editor Matt Noffke, Kearney Hub Warren Pratt Jr. of Pawnee, Okla., dances during Saturday’s drum and dance exhibition. Pratt was among about 150 Pawnees who shared their culture at the Great Platte River Road Archway. KEARNEY — A crowd estimated at more than 2,500 got a glimpse of Pawnee culture Saturday before rain forced an early ending for the powwow and homecoming. “All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you,” Head Chief Pat LeadingFox said about the size of Saturday’s audience and the warm reception in Nebraska. Crowd estimates ranged from 2,500 to as high as 5,000. Amidst the raindrops that threatened to ruin some of the ceremonial dress that tribal dancers wore, LeadingFox said it was well worth the effort to travel to Nebraska to set foot upon the Pawnee’s ancestral lands. In addition to dispersing Pawnee dancers, the rain sent most of the people attending the powwow at the Great Platte River Road Archway back to their cars. Vehicles lined Archway Parkway for almost three miles west of the archway.