Dis-spirited-Brainwashed

Sunday, June 14, 2020

I am currently at the St. Croix casino and hotel. I am unfortunately here for a relatives funeral. It was 220 one way trip, Here I am supposed to be in one of my homelands, the place where I received much of my Spiritual nurturing and upbringing. As the remnants of the virus are hanging on like a patch of poison oak throughout most of society, I can't help but witness the utter brainwashing that has been set very deeply into mainstream souls. It's a bad infliction to have and most of our tribal people are no different - trapped by the fear of catching the virus. 

I have said and will continue to say that tribal people should act and believe that they are above the laws of the mainstream. What I mean is that if the state and feds want to continue with certain laws and procedures in regards to the virus, that is fine but tribal people shouldn't have allowed their tribal governments to give in to the bullies(feds. & States) and be scared into the main streams policies and norms in regard to the virus pandemic.

What is done is done. Most tribal people have accepted their government's business practices in regard to the virus. Most of the tribal members across Turtle Island have no true democracy when it comes to tribal council directives and business decisions. What the tribal councils set and puts out is pretty non-negotiable, when it comes to business decisions. Most tribal councils do not allow the luxury of voting on everyday issues, policies and so it is the same with the COVID-sars2 pandemic. What most councils have decided to enact is the same false - science - MAGICAL - if you would strategies and protections that the state and feds have enacted. I guess what I mean is that for the most part when it comes to tribal governments and politics, it appears that we engage and participate in majority democracy, where everyone votes, right? Nope. What is handed down to us and what has happened since the inception of tribal politics is religious politics or consensus politics? In most of the Native Nations on turtle island, there are Christians and there are traditionalists. These two groups are what have split tribal nations when it comes to making political, economic, and religious decisions for the whole of the tribe. There have always been different nations of white people. YOu could look at their track record and make a stunning realization and reveal what type of white person they are. But the few I'm referring to are the religious, business model, nepotistic, and fascists. Since their arrival, they have pretty much dictated the whole entire United States with it's stolen ideas, beliefs, and legislation when it comes to politics. 

White people have ruled our tribe's period. They continue to hide behind the lines, dictate to the tribal councils what should be business, and count there money. Think I'm wrong, look at the H.R departments and ask yourself why there are so many jobs that require higher education and experiences? Why do so many white people on the reservations make 2-3 times more than a band member for the same job. White people take care of their own and only look out for their own - period. Don't get me started on workplace politics with certain white people. When you try and report the white people, you are deemed a bad worker, jealous, jaded and all that other crap. If you do report the white guy, if the state needs to get involved, most likely the state will look the other way. They will say it's a jurisdiction thing and "have a nice day." 

So, you see, with the pandemic thing, do you think anyone wants to go back to the work? What I predicted before is starting to happen, the casinos are getting blamed for covid-sars-2 outbreaks. One casino in the north here is already "reporting" that one of their workers has covid. Which is bullshit, many people do not want the casinos open and they will do, say or act a certain way to get what they want. 

Moving on....

If many tribal members believe that as employees, they shouldn't wear face masks, they should be given that opportunity or option for that matter. If a visiting member of the tribe does not want their temperature taken, they should be able to wave that card, right? WRONG!

Tribal members of a tribe should be able to throw out their tribal sovereignty card right? The tribal members should be able to enter their own business at their own discretion and practice their true self-belief-sovereign identity right? 

layers upon layers of this no rights, no discussion-no voting procedures has gone on for decades. Most tribal members keep believing in the fact that if they "vote" or put in a new face, the system will be or get better. Wrong! The tribal systems that are in place cannot be changed or repaired. They cannot be fixed because that would mean that tribes would be acting sovereign and the feds and states cannot have that. So in return, they let us have the sovereignty turned inward towards us as the individuals. YOu know, the oppressor and the oppressed? It's like going to a doctor, if the doctor says you need medication to fix your health, you tend to believe him because he's the doctor, he knows best, right?

chill

Man, today was a hard day. I got my two-mile run in and when I returned, shit hit the fan. 

What I can say is this. I'm sorry if I had you on groups chat. I'm sorry if my words pissed you off. But that's life and in Anishinabeg teachings, if you get pissed off than the truth rocked your soul. 

I think the sars-covid-2 is starting to hit me with certain people. I have a friend whose wife is a nurse, currently shes not employed and he is busting his ass at some job he hates. He got irate on me as well. People with no true teachings or who have lived a life of American culture are in for a shock. Its time to revert back to the olden days. No petroleum. No gas. No addiction to petroleum and all of its trinkets that make the world go around and all the stuff that is made with the black snake. 

I was asked once, why was I so jaded? It took me back for a second because the person who I thought I was speaking with had a basic grasp of Anishnabeg culture. It seems like my words are still being used against me and people still here jadory in my words. People have traded their traditional teachings for the professional world. The professional world laughs and mocks Anishinabeg culture and beliefs, through many faces. Like the homes, we choose to live in. All the wood, nails, stucco, paint, and rocks that are used for our homes are probably never given individual thanks or a ceremony is hardly given. Can you think of yourself moving into a Wigwam. Our educational experiences teach us that Wigwams are cool, but not cool to live in. Education teaches us that clouds and precipitation bring wind and rain. We hardly teach our children that the wind, rain, and clouds are Spirits and that they constantly take care of us. 

To live a life off the grid is an endeavor that most of us will never want to put ourselves through. Indians can never be free. We are marked like the Jewish people during Hitlers tyranny episode. We all have S.S numbers and follow the white man's ways like the pide piper. We need to purchase up some land and try to live free again. We have to tell our brothers of different colors and cultures to kindly leave us alone or return back to their homelands, but leave us alone. 

Our tribal worlds have been spoiled by the whitemans way of life. The whiteman has taught us how to cut the corners and make life easier. He has given us the dollar bill to respect, admire, trade and worship - better than our own culture. 

The less money I have in my pocket the lighter I am. 

Chief Jay

More crap

I've been saying this before, medical facilities, workers and related professionals over wash their hands. Sanitize this, sanitize that. Get rid of these healthy germs, strip your hands clean. Okay, sanitizing is good to a point, but not necessary. What has gotten lost in the tribal worlds is vast, especially when it comes to our own self - wisdom. Now with the sars-covid-2 dilemma, Native peoples are either believing the hype, going with the flow or just not giving a rats ass to what the government thinks, disseminates or enacts. Point is more lies are coming down the tube - youtube. JK.

I just saw a few relatives that quarantined themselves for the past few months. I mean they really did not come out of their house. I felt really bad for them because they are still wearing masks and they believe what the good ole government is telling them. Honestly, they don't even look healthy, there pale, appear weaker, and are just plain brainwashed. 

I have not watched or listened to the hype of the mainstream media. They are dangerous. What I said before is that, they are the virus. Too many people have things to say when it comes to the sars-covid-2. Indian people are no different. We have unleashed to many Indians and not enough Chiefs. Too many Indians speak out of turn or let their so-called "professional" opinion be heard. Problem with that is, long ago, you had to be gifted to be a speaker for the tribe, you had to be able to think for the tribe, children, elders, and community, lastly did you speak for your own self. But that is another problem, white society has taught us to go out and get an education, stand up for YOURSELF and eventually only think about YOU-YOU-YOU-YOU. 

Professionalism and selfishness were left at the front of the wigwam. If you displayed too much of those virtues, you would eventually get kicked out of the community. 

More lies are coming to a town near you. If you're smart you will be able to start living your life like there is no sars-covid-2 and not be afraid, not be afraid to die.

Yes, I said that. Let me remind you of the phrase "today is a good day to die." 

YOu see, our true cultural teachings make you believe, they make you believe the phrase "today is a good day to die." We are taught that we have to live life to the fullest. We have to live life like it is our last day on earth. We do not know when it is our turn to make our journey to the Creator. We have allowed to many western ideas into our souls when it comes to death. 

We should be teaching our children that time management, extra whip cream, better expensive toys, good-paying jobs are not important, they never have been. We have become Indians that are proud of many white man's ideas and values. These foreign ideas, concepts, and value systems have contributed to our own Native cultural sickness and sicknesses. These white foreign systems will be extremely hard to shed and admit to when the next chapter unfolds. You will have to start eating all the fish you catch not just the walleye. You will have to start eating our brothers-the animals. You will have to start bathing in the stream or lake and forgetting your pretty ass smelling soaps. You will have to get past the notion of USDA approved, securely protected goods, pretty clothes, to name a few.

The psych of the Indian person has eroded like an animal in the zoo. Yes, it's nice to see a wild animal but they live in the woods, not a zoo. I must say that the animals have not lost their way of thinking, acting or living their lives, don't their lives matter too? Animals have not forgotten the teachings that the Creator gave them. When we run them over with our cars, we think how bad we feel. We almost never remember that the animals give their lives for us, in part we have to honor them in life and death. 

Death is not dying. Living the way we have been living for the past 50 years is death. It's time to be Indians again and remember to live life to the fullest. If we die today, we die today. That way when we approach the Creator, we can say we lived a good Anishinabeg life and we lived it to the fullest!

Chief Jay

Time to get it together

I've given my opinion on the sars-covid-2. What Native nations should be doing is planning. We should be preparing our communities for the economic collapse that is happening on a global scale. The great U.S has lost 1/3 of its jobs and it ain't going to get any better. If you haven't heard of the prophecy from our elders in regards to the Whitman, let me reiterate it now. "The white man's way of life is going to end."

What does this mean, it means that we have allowed our tribal worlds to become dominated by white business and social norms. We have allowed our behaviors to become much like the white system in regards to the way we transact business models, live our daily lives, and how we perceive the world. What we are not talking about is what is next? What is next is not going to be any better. Jobs, medical structures, and homes are being lost in this economic collapse that we are enduring with our children and or Grandchildren. 

What is coming next in regards to the federal government is not going to be good. We will not have the option to live our lives that we have had to this point in the realm. Our tribal governments should be preparing for the next wave of lost jobs, homes, medical care, and land. But they are not, they are trying to resurrect their already lost gaming infrastructures. Tribal Governments are failing us miserable and do not have the means to "see the light at the end of the tunnel."

The second wave of the sars-covid-2 is coming. Not only did the feds predict in advance that a second wave is imminent, but our tribal governments will also believe it. Right now gaming facilities across the land are only 1/3 to 1/2 functional. They are trying to extract the water from a sinking ship. The ship will sink and what will are options be when the ship is sunk? Will our tribal governments try and throw us life preservers to save us? No, they will not. Tribal Governments will try and bail themselves out without ever thinking of the rest of the band members. What is happening to our tribal worlds is unprecedented, the only elders that have experienced what we are enduring and what is coming are all but gone. But, we have many community members that have lived their lives with basic needs and basic shelters for the last 50 years. These basics essentials will even be less in the next chapter. 

We should not only be thinking of communal living, because the Indians that are out there living in the cities, ghettos and metropolitan areas are doomed. They are doomed if they do not return back to their homelands. The systematic looting of the inner cities is going to get worse and more violent. Not only should we be thinking and planning communal living, we should start getting our families together and figure out who's got what. let's not forget that communal living was a traditional concept of our culture. To get back to communal living means that we have to start thinking about the clan systems. You see clans lived wit their own clan. They lived with their own clans due to economic, religious, and daily life functions. They knew how to get along and get things done in an efficient matter. Each clan was unique to the world and each clans gifts complemented the rest of the bands and or clans. ( do you see why living in the white world was a bad idea)

You see, we are behind our own times. Each clan had a Chief and the Chiefs did not have the final say, the women had the final say. So, it's safe to say that our women need to start planning, preparing and discussing our next moves in the following chapter.

Do I brave to say religion. In the next chapter, we will definitely see the splitting of our tribal people when it comes to Christianity and traditional people. Let me say from experience that Christianity and traditional people can coexist but we should have learned how to put our religious viewpoints aside and get things done. But it hasn't happened and these differences in cultural interpretations are going to come to a spearhead. In the meantime, we all will be clawing to exist in this next chapter. The CHiefs and women in the past never accepted Christianity, they respected it. 

When our medical facilities are defunct and only for the elite, what or who will we turn to> We will have to turn to the Chiefs and traditional people or the medicine people. These groups of tribal people will continue to cure us of the diseases that exist, even sars-covid-2.

Once the economy starts to tank, you will then start to believe that being Anishinabeg is a gift. As a gift is appreciated and taken care of, you will have to start to see the world as a human Anishinaeg, not a drug addict, student, alcoholic, professional personnel or a working-class person. All of that will be nil, You will start to realize that you had all this time to be, act and think like Anishinabeg, nothing else. 

So, Whatchya going to do????

Chief Jay

 

Fathers day

As I sit and reminisce about being a father, I can't help but think of my own father. I might give him a call or I might not. You see it's not that easy when it comes to him and my relationship. It's definitely not all my fault when it comes to our relationship. 

I remember when I was a kid my dad was cool. He was always busy working. He raised us in Minneapolis. He worked as a Metropolitan transit worker or a bus driver. Once in a while, he would let me or one of my 5 siblings ride along. My dad was very adamant about 2 things school and exercise. He always made us get up and attend school and play some type of sport. I wasn't too gifted with the mass department but I held my own in basketball, baseball, and football. I eventually gave up on football because I didn't have the build for it. However, I did find my mojo with boxing. I started training when I was 8 years old and had my first match when I was 10.

Okay, enough of the paint a perfect picture. I will get to the just of what I want to express in regards to my father. 

My dad is a good dude, he means well but somewhere along the line, he changed. Maybe he was always the way he is now but I been able to see through him and what he thought about me. 

Anyhoo, when I started my spiritual journey, is when my father started to put me down and keep me down.

What I mean is my dad was also strict when it came to our religion. He was very serious and loving about our Spiritual way of life. He would make me stay in the reservation from a young age to be immersed in the language and culture. It paid off and I'm thankful for him and what he made me endure while I was a child. 

I remember one time I skipped attending one of our religious functions. I totally did not want anything to do with it that weekend, I wanted to party and hang out with my friends. I eventually got grounded for skipping out on our ceremonies 

I think my dad forgot what the old people had said to him about my SPiritual growth and outlook. However, I did regularly attend the ceremonies. Even after my dad moved back to the reservation, I still managed to attend the ceremonies and make the 2-hour trek to the reservation. 

When I was 19, I became totally serious about our religion or ceremonies. YOu have to remember that I was gifted by the elders to carry on the compassion and sacred ways of our village. 

The more I learned as a young man, the more I became confident in what I could do or perform in service.  I think that my dad waited for me to get his approval to go ahead and start my own path. But I never did, I just went on my path and did not stop. The elders knew I had to learn, they also knew I had to live life and figure things out on my own. That's what I did, I lived my life and learned many valuable lessons which I carry with e to this day.

The more I learned, the more My dad would try and put me down about what I would be doing. I guess, now that I think of it, maybe he didn't want me to get hurt - but he never said that. YOu see my dad was trying to learn what I was already getting ready to do in my young life and that was ceremonies. At times my dad would try and blame me for his own actions. One time I was living in White Earth and working a full-time job. During that particular time, I was starting to teach people, my relatives a new way about our Spirituality and how to make connections. Eventually, people would ask for my service of some sort and I would try and do my best to help them. I had no doubts or hesitation when it came to speaking for a ceremony or having a ceremony for a family or person. At the same time, my dad would try and have his own ceremonies. I remember when I would return home, he would have some wannabe medicine man or woman at his house. I say this because I've always had the ability to see through people and see them for who they really were. Most of the time, the people that my dad would invite to his house, were there for other reasons. My dad could never really see this about the people that he would invite to his house and it eventually caught up to him. One particular time I remember that he had these women at his house and they were performing a sweatlodge. They had asked me if I needed help or wanted to attend the sweatlodge. I declined because I learned that Anishinabeg men do to sweat with women. As you can read, me and my dads cultural interpretations started to conflict and that affected my dads judgment towards me as his son, SPiritual man and human being. I remember after the woman left his house, I went back to school or something. I had heard that my dad had gotten pneumonia, which told me that I was right, that, Anishinabeg men do not sweat with women - because they are too powerful and you might get sick. It was never my way to rub things in my dads face and say "see - I told you so."

When I called to check up on him, I asked him how he was. "You ain't no medicine man. Whatever you're doing in Whiteearth, you better knock that shit off, cuz it's coming back on me. I didn't call to hear your negative crap, I just called to check on you." I then hung up the phone and just let things be, but that didn't help the future of our relationship. Another particular time was when he got into a car wreck. He had gotten hospitalized and it was kind of serious. I was visiting my sister and we decided to run down to Minneapolis to check on his status. When we arrived, we were surprised that he was banged up a little bit and laying in a hospital bed. As I motioned toward his bed, I felt this really bad feeling or aura coming from him. When I looked up at him, my dad was looking at me with anger, disgust, and hate in his eyes. I still gave him a hug and remembered what I had felt. I think eventually he blamed me for that car accident.

 None of these things affected me as a person. I learned from a few good elders that my dad's shit was his own and that I would never be able to change that. His feelings towards me never changed but his feelings did change my attitudes and relationship towards him. That - I DO OWN.

Lastly. A few years ago, I became a Chief. When I became a Chief, it made sense in many ways. It made sense in the way that I could always read into what a person was saying, even at a young age. Don't get me wrong, the minus side of having the D.N.A of a Chief is that people dislike your soul, especially elderly men. More on that later. When I became a Chief, not one person in my home community said anything, they couldn't even bring themselves to acknowledge my new position. Again, it did not stop me from being able to perform the rituals that my people need. Eventually, my father was on the prowl again. This time he related to my nephew that I was doing bad medicine and that I was evil. Mind you that I have 20 Grandchildren. Having a big family and Grandchildren help define you as a human being, a Spiritual person, and in my case, a Chief. Children and Grandchildren define you as a human being. If you are healthy, they are healthy. If you are doing bad - they are doing bad. When they are sick - you are sick. Unlike my dad and my relationship, when me and all my children do good - WE ALL DO GOOD. 

Happy Fathers day to my dad, Zaan gwe wi gabow. 

To all of you reading this, Happy Fathers day. Our Fathers are good men, even if they don't believe it themselves. They still hurt and have feelings. 

Trader

Time to put up or shut up. If your reading this your probably a trader, a trader to our culture and the disciplines of our Anishinabeg elder epistemology. 

Let's admit it, many elders of the present do not have or cannot possess the virtues of elders of 20 years ago. Most of the elders in the past 20 years are the last of a dying breed. I would like to pinpoint the elderly Native population between their 80's and 90's. Believe me, I've talked and visited many of this population for some years now. Okay, what am I trying to say...

Elders were the police of the community. Elders were the police of the community - point-blank. The elders that I am referring to were immersed in tribal cultures and disciplines that allowed them to be beacons of light from their young age to middle age to old age. They were groomed to be elders and disciplined elders is what they became. As they became elders they did not see themselves or did not glorify that they were an elder. These elders did not act or say that they were smarter than you or that they were the only ones to listen to, THEY KNEW THEY WERE ELDERS. Being an elder was a way of thinking, acting, and loving their community. They were not afraid of putting you or your family in their place. When they did put you in your place, they would sit and talk with you, they would not judge you or put their outlook on the world on a pedestal. They would counsel you and ask you what your thoughts were on the community and the world. They would be able to relate the traditions of the tribe both, in the white world and the tribal world. By sitting and visiting with you, these elders would listen to you and give you advice to guide you, train you, and discipline you. These elders would look past your insecurities and flaws and offer their knowledge to help assist you to relate to tribal thinking, actions, and love, all of which are needed in order to live a happy and humble life. All of which is needed to survive in a world that spreads deceit and lies on a daily basis.

These same elders would watch you and your soul. They would be able to look into and unto your soul and relate your actions as a human being and tell you if you were living a good life or where you needed to improve in your identity to help expedite the natural - traditional thought processes. If these elders suspected that you were untruthful or pulling the wool over their eyes, then they would challenge your train of thought. Mind you that these elders would switch their tone, to be able to get the lie or deceitful way of thinking out of your soul. These elders would not get pissed off, they merely would have to revert to 'yelling.' in order to get you to see the light that they wanted you to see or experience. (Yelling has been misinterpreted within our own people- someday I will tell you about it)

These elders would know how much they were capable of assisting you. They would know if you needed to see a healer or a person that had tools to communicate with the Spirits, in order to guide you. If given permission, our elders would make contact with a medicine man or woman and guide you through the process.(Ask me about HIPAA- A sheer joke in tribal worlds) Our elders would reassure you and your soul that you were safe, loved, and nurtured. They would make sure that you knew what you were getting yourself into. They then would go into their professional elder epistemology and begin to tell you a story, a story about their first experience into what you were getting yourself into. Through this storytelling event, our elders would tell you many things about their first experiences about the event you were going to witness first hand. As the elders would expel their story to you, you would find your self lost and in awe to what was being expelled. The elder at this time would be in sync with your soul and because they were in sync, listening to them would make you forget yourself and your problems. By continuing to listen to the elder, you would start to gain a better experience of your self and the road that you may or may have not have chosen. 

Where ever you are in your life, every day that you are living - you are becoming that much closer to an elder. If you do not get ahold of the life that you traded for our traditional elder epistemology, you will not be living the teachings that we were given by the Great Spirit. It's up to you (booch get gin) how you want to incorporate an elder way of thinking. Many of our elders have lost their true identity in this western world and need our love and commitment to help assist, guide and show them that they are our true wisdom keepers. Our tribal worlds have become stagnant and rid of true elder epistemology. As you grow, so to should our elders. Our elder's lives have been merely erased of true elder epistemology and it is up to us to love and grow with them to become the true elders once again. 

Have you traded your elder hand for a dumbed-down, know everything type of lifestyle? I hope not, because our tribal worlds need to get back to the elders and the wisdom that they possess.

Jason Lee

Chief community

Resolutions, resolutions and rezzylutions.

 Miskwaa zagai ganing anishinabeg o o ogemaawajig ishpenimago yeg minawaa Gicho ogemawajig. Excuse the typos in ojib. 

Redlake is one of the only tribes which acknowledges their hereditary Chiefs. What does this mean to many other Ojibwe tribes? Nothing! Hereditary Chief today means that we can wear a picture of a chief on a shirt and that by wearing this symbol or trademark, it makes us more Indian or that we live a lifestyle of a Chief. 

It's like the notion that Indians are sovereign. Tribes are sovereign, not individual band members of the tribe. The federal legislation and the systems in place do not allow us Indians to be SOVEREIGN INDIVIDUALS.

Many Indian communities do not want or can fathom the thought of possessing their own form of traditional government-THE GOVERNMENTS THAT WERE PART OF OUR TRADITIONAL CULTURE. NOT the modern-day current R.B.C.'s. If any of our communities cannot fathom the idea of a traditional form of government in their community, then you have to tell yourself that the belief system of many Indian communities has been compromised, compromised by the Federal Government. This compromised sense of thinking tells our sub-conscious that CHIEFS ARE OF THE PAST AND THEY ARE DEAD. Dead in the sense that, we believe in the power of money, but not the power of our Chiefs. If we could start teaching our children about Chiefs and that they are living, breathing, pay your bills type of people, we would have less depression, suicide, alcoholism, and drug use, to name a few.  We are more than that, we are the vessels granted by the Great Spirit to guide our people and open their eyes to their selfish ways. It is to guide the people through this world pandemic and re-teach the people, that fear is not part of our genetic makeup and that "fear" is a brainwashing tool used by the Whitman. Chiefs are more than speakers, they are Spiritual beings, medicine men, and truth seekers to name a few.  Above all, WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS FIRST AND FOREMOSTLY. We are appointed by the Spirits, not by humans.  

 However, we really shouldn't allow ourselves, in our own state of mind to identify with the Chieftainship values and code of ethics. These codes of ethics are in many ways - too hard to live by and go against many of our modern-day work ethics - and all of it's associated pyramid power structure, not to forget policy and procedure. 

You cannot fully implement a Chieftain - a traditional way of life - even within the reservation - the working-ethical - a system in place, does not acknowledge or care about a person's feelings and or gender(yes women and men have teachings).

Most of the modern-day- working-class Indians(Anishinabe) cannot accept a hereditary Chief - Traditional form of work environment - due to the whole idea as inconceivable and that the white workforce has dominated the country since its inception. The whole working experience - from beginning to end is set up in western ideal practices. These business practices have not been challenged in tribal courts, because the courts are set up with the same system. We attend higher education and institutes, to study the professional business of the white world. Many of the experiences and ideas we learn at these facilities, we own, possess, and make them part of our own belief system. We then get hired by a tribal reservation and bring our new white driven policy and guidelines with us.  Once we are finished with our probation period, we then continue the domination of the Chieftain - a traditional way of thinking, lifestyle, and culture. We assist in the process of eliminating the local traditions and beliefs with the blessing of our hirees, the tribes, or tribal councils. 

EDUCATION

 

The modern-day education experience is designed to keep us divided, controlled, dumbed down, and institutionalized like a modern-day felon(did I forget to say religious ceremony for 12 plus years). Yet, we consider ourselves better off than the felon(haha). I mean think about it, freedom of speech is taken out of the school system - we have to raise our hands to speak, we have to be granted permission to relieve our bodily fluids. Indian boarding schools are still real, except we don't get beat, some teachers have become more clever than that, they repeatedly beat our souls and minds. I once heard that most teachers are control freaks. I, both as a student and a fellow employee, would concur with that statement. Tribal societies have failed our children and Grandchildren, by continuing to allow the learning curve to be one way and one way only when it comes to education. We have forgotten what our natural ways of learning look like, what it smells like, and what is healthy to our children's souls. 

Some of us that have the luxury of attending higher education institutes attend a tribal specific class or program. What we fail to conceive in our own imagination, is that the poison is still there, the poison of the white rhetoric that undermines the whole school experience. Attending a tribal class or graduating from a tribal program is great but it still is a lie and reinforces the white system within our own professions and personal experiences. Except now, we have an Indian twist to our degree, professional functions, and our state of mind. Don't get me wrong, we have to be able to read and write and that's it. Think about it. Most of us experience our first set of lies when we attend head start, early ed. or kindergarten. If we have to take school supplemented transportation, we have to wait and we have to wait day in and day out. We make our children go out in below zero weather and think of it as normal. What does our culture say about this practice? Where are our elder's teachings and guidance during these early years of our children's programming? Whether we believe it or not, we condition, condition, condition, and assist in brainwashing our children's minds with white - policy-driven- ploys - tactics and lies. Do we not wonder why the graduation rate for Natives is still low? Have we not figured out that our youth have figured out the lies that manifest on the bus, the hallways, the cafeteria, with the other children and the whole infrastructure? Hmm. Hmm.

I guess you could say that if you like school, you are a good liar. Oh wait, you will become a great liar. YOu have to believe that school is greater than your Anishinabeg culture right? You have to believe that the culture is dull, has no ethics, has no discipline for time, and is just boring. Your new to the cultural experience, so then you hit up the local cultural people and start to mingle with the culture. It's a good thing to mingle but how far are you willing to go? Is the culture you are looking for just to implement a few Anishinabeg language and history classes in the local school? Is your cultural mingle driving your desire to resurrect the language? All good stuff but you see, the underline policies where education gets their funding is white rhetoric - white classism - white, white. I guess you could say it's white all the way from the queen and her conquest of vast territories. The modern-day school experience has destroyed our thirst for our culture and all of its traditional teachings. We have to start selecting culturally orientated people - that are 100%. This means many things and we have to be able to hear the truths and experiences that these people have retained by not fully being engulfed by white culture. We have to start brainstorming what our worlds looked like 200 years ago. We have to remember that learning the language is only part of the solution. Blah, Blah, Blah.

So, why did you attend higher ed? Did you attend higher ed. because you wanted to experience a new way of life? Did you attend because everyone in your family attended and it was the right thing to do? Did you attend because you wanted to make a better salary and be "better off?" I know it's none of my business but ask yourself this question; In a traditional/wholistic setting of long ago, didn't the Chief know everyone's business????

Jay Wadena

To be continued...