Daylight 1997

December, 1997

New York City is very festive looking during the Winter Season. People are celebrating Christmas, Channukkah, New Years, Winter Solstice and Kwanza. Bright lights are flashing all over the city.

I've noticed a trend over the last few years, and that is for overpaid t.v. personalities, (I don't want to call them news reporters anymore) to find stories to tell us how miserable people are during this time of the year, how horrible it is to shop, how the season has become so commercial. Meanwhile, you can bet that they'll spend (and receive) much more than you or I will spend on gifts for the rest of the year. It's like the media is systematically erasing all holidays. Each Halloween, they bring us frightening stories and urge parents to keep children indoors...or perhaps pay $15 per child to got to Madison Square Garden to "celebrate safely". A few years ago, the media circulated a story about a man who put a razor blade in an apple that he gave to a trick-or-treater. It turned out to be a cruel lie against an old man, but the correction was lost in the back pages of the newspaper. Worse yet, year after year, they trot out the same story every Halloween!

And now, every Winter season, the media tells us how commercial things are getting. What a laugh! Since when did the media NOT want us to be consumers? If there's anyone who teaches us it is better to receive than to give, it is the media with their countless Barbies and Tickle Me Elmos.

Hold to the spirit of giving in this holiday season and beyond. Celebrate this season in whatever way you choose. The Coming of the long night of winter, then the gradual lengthening of days, is a spiritual wonder for all indigenous people who experience it. It was a time of sharing, long before the first Christmas.

Winter was a time when hunting was harder and less certain. The dried and preserved foods were the mainstay of most diets during the winter months, and much sharing took place when the family larders ran low. This was also a time when many of our traditional stories were told around the fire of the warm asi.

Let us remember our spirit of sharing during this time, and the spirit of anticipation whether it's for the birth of the Christ Child, the Return of the Sun, The ceremony of Kwanza or the Bounding Bush Feast.

Walk In Harmony, *Noquisi Iga*

October 15, 1997

POLICE BRUTALITY

I am writing to you about something heavy on my heart. It is an evil that has spread from town to town, city to city and coast to coast. It is Police Brutality.
The same story repeats itself over and over again: the victim, who is usually Black, Latino, Native American or Asian, is stopped (in their car, home, on the street, even in church) by the policeman who is almost always White, (but sometimes a Latino or Black in the company of White Officers). There is usually verbal abuse (profanity, ethnic or racial slurs), followed by force. The force may be mild..a shove, a push, or it may be brutal where the victim is kicked, stomped, shoved, beaten with clubs and flashlights by three, four or more police. If you try to cover yourself, or stop the blows in any way you are "resisting". Shots are often fired, usually in the victim's back.Victims are often beaten or killed in the presence of family members.The caste or class of the victim does not matter as much as the skin color does. While most victims are young and male; grandmothers and grandfathers, as well as children as young as nine years old have been brutalized or shot as well. While a few victims may have had criminal histories (and even that should not they deserve to be beaten or killed unarmed, without a chance to defend themselves), most do not have records. They are people like yourselves, workers, students, artists, ministers, storekeepers, actors, athletes, teachers, farm workers, homeowners and the homeless, unemployed, underemployed, someone's mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter, people of color from all walks of life.
This is not denied or deniable. What the grieving families and fearful community members are told is that, "these atrocities are done by rogue cops". But when the belated investigations come, it is found that these "rogues" NEVER worked alone, and usually have a long string of ignored reports on an established pattern of misconduct.
I am not saying that all cops are bad, but I am saying that they were all raised in a society that taught them that most people of color, especially the men and boys, have criminal tendencies. Born Bad. Nothing to do with economics or oppression, it's just in their genes and upbringing.
Most White police officers are raised in communities where they knew few or no people of color. Some of them grew up in communities that threatened, or burned the homes of people of color who wanted to move in. Police officers often grew up as children of police fathers, uncles and now mothers who filled their heads with "them against us" stories, Cowboy stories about holding the fort against the savages outside. There is a precienct in New York City called "Fort Apache". They even made a movie about it years ago. What does that name tell you? So a child grows up hearing these stories, hearing about the Brown, Black, Red or Yellow criminals that their fathers had to bang upside the head. Television news continues the brainwashing with a nightly display of men and women of color accused of committing violent crimes. So this kid grows up and joins the police force---to do what?

Judging only from my life experiences, and the experiences of others I've discussed this with, I would say that 50% of the police force is racist and show it, (including some self-hating people of color), 30% go along with the racism and brutality because a)they are afraid to stand up against it, b)they don't want to jeopardize their economic stability, c)they don't know what to do about it d)they don't want to lose their "buddy-boy" status.

That leaves 20% with good hearts, and a desire to be of service, to fight crime and to provide protection to the people, ALL of the people. They themselves may have grown up in crime-ridden neighborhoods, and honestly believed that they could make a difference. Some may even be the "Good White Folks" we have been raised hearing about. But if they "do the right thing" they find themselves thwarted, harassed and pressured to uphold the status quo. They may be victimized themselves by their fellow policemen and women, and vilified by those outside of the force.They might even end up dead.New York's grandstanding mayor, Rudolph "Spotlight" Guiliani, feeds the flames of violence by rewarding "Rambo" behavior and justifying even blatant brutality. When off-duty cops who were out drinking with a known criminal, brutally beat a Black youth into a coma for the crime of walking a White neighbor to her car, Guiliani explained "it was because the police were drunk". As if they were good guys, who somehow drank a bottle of brutality. Now, this is only my opinion, and I admit I might be a bit subjective. However, Amnesty International, which is known around the world for its investigations on human rights violations, singled out New York for an investigation on Police Brutality. They found it was not rumor, not hearsay, and not disgruntled criminals. They found there was indeed a pattern - not rare instances - of Police Brutality. This is Terrorism. This is the beginning of a Fascist Police State. I have spoken with Jewish people who told me that the nightmare of Nazi Germany began in this way. Their people vilified in the German media, held up as criminals, deviants and as the cause of Germany's economic woes. The arrests. The beatings. The tortures. The murders. And then the roundups.When the Occupation Government does nothing to stop these racist police abuses, when the media treats our deaths, beatings, and intimidations casually, then the racists outside of the police force also gather courage. They feel free to terrorize, brutalize and murder, because - who ya gonna call? The police are doing it, too!I am calling on my brother and sister Cherokees, (especially my Wolf Clan Brothers and sisters, to take a stand. On October 22nd, there will be a Nation-wide Day of Protest to STOP POLICE BRUTALITY,, repression, and the criminalization of a generation. We are asking that you wear black on that day, or at least a black armband or ribbon.

ARE NATIVE AMERICANS REALLY SOVEREIGN NATIONS?

Are Native Americans really sovereign? Are we really Nations? We have no standing armies, but not because we are non-aligned or non-violent. Our warriors of today fight wearing the uniform of the United States. They do not fight wars declared by our chiefs, they are not fighting enemies of our Nations. Our enemies are not overseas. What army protects our people, as drugs and violence find their way into Native communities on and off the rez?
What is our GNP (Gross National Product?) In other words, what is Indian Country producing? Japan is noted for electronics and cars, the U.S. targets the weapons trade and biotech market, developing new technologies that include gene manipulation and germ warfare.
Our definition of ourselves now rests in guidelines given to us by outsiders. Every decade or so, various tribes are written out of existence while others emerge through "recognition". While other ethnic groups in the U.S. take pride in their expanding populations, some Native people join the U.S. gov't in excluding and diminishing our numbers. It's almost as if we want to live up to the Occupation Government's view of us as a "vanishing race".
Do we "sovereign people" have a lifestyle and belief system that is distinctively different from that of the non-Native U.S. society?
For instance, how do we educate our children? How do we maintain the healthcare of our people? China, India, and many other nations give a high priority to their traditional healing systems, such as the Ayurvedic system in India and the herbalism and acupuncture of China. Our Nations look to the Surgeon General to tell us what's right or wrong with us. We wholeheartedly accept any medical theory, any drug, any operation and any vaccine for ourselves and our children without question or investigation, from a medical system whose priority is profits. So soon have we forgotten the smallpox blankets of not so long ago. Or the EZ vaccine given to Black and Hispanic babies in L.A. a couple of years ago, after tests (done on babies in the Third World) showed that it caused the death of many girl-babies three years after it was taken.
That is how I feel. Please e-mail me, or drop me a line at BTTB, Box 527-524 NT, Queens, NY 11352-7524

June 7, 1997
This year is our Fifth Anniversary! No, not Evergreen's and mine, our Journal! How many of you have been along for the whole ride? When I look at those early issues, I have to smile, and give thanks that you stayed loyal through my early attempts. If any of you still have any of those early issues - hide them! Although I was full of enthusiasm, I certainly lacked the know-how. But I plodded along and you humored me and praised me for the baby steps I was taking. Like a baby, I thought I was walking tall and had no idea of how much I was wobbling on little legs!. "Practice makes perfect", and though our journal is not yet perfect, I'm proud of the progress we've made. And now I, the original Neo-Luddite, have even created a Web page.

I wrote an article around the New Year about the year 1997 being a good year for Cherokees, a year of Spiritual Growth. (I was taught that about any year ending in the number 7). But it seems that this year me, my family, friends, clanspeople, and many other folks all seem to be going through some serious challenges. Health, finances, and family members, you name it. Why, it seems that whole Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma is going through it! A Native brother recently said, "Noquisi, it seems that you're wrong. 1997 is not a time of Spiritual Growth at all, but a time of trial and tribulation!"

It does seem to be a time of trial and tribulation, but I still believe it is a time of Spiritual Growth. I don't feel beaten down by the challenges, I feel challenged. I feel like there are things the Creator wants us to focus on and take care of. Our health. Our families. The exploitative, failing, economic system we are living under. Our communities, Mother Earth. Things are happening, some of them unpleasant, to make us take a long, hard look at what we've been doing wrong. Or, just as bad, what we've allowed to be done as we stood by silently. Building communities along areas known to flood. Some of the most expensive real-estate today is waterfront property. Any traditionals would have built only temporary, seasonal housing there, or built homes high on stilts. No, we do it the modern way, and call it an "Act of God" when the flood comes. This is not to belittle the suffering of those who have been flooded, but a call to prevent more of the same.

Most serious challenges cause us to think deeply, often lifting our minds beyond our usual patterns of thinking..pushing our thoughts to the spiritual or metaphysical realm. If we are open, if we are honest with ourselves, the answers will come. If we are open and honest with ourselves, we can ACCEPT the answers that come to us.

It is very important that we become strong enough to acknowledge our part in the creation of our circumstances. If we can see where we turned off onto the path that led us to an unpleasant place, then we will know where to take the path that returns home.

Walk In Harmony,

Day Starr

A Day in April, 1997. The night my children were killed in Peru.

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