My name is Storm Jack Reyes.  I was asked if I would care to write an
article on the state of religious freedom for Native Americans
incarcerated in prisons in Washington State.  This is a question of
survival for the Native peoples -- 4% of the prison population is Native
American, yet we are less than 2% of the general population.  As a
people, we cannot afford to have this many of our men locked way and
permanently damaged.  We are fighting for our children and our children
to come.

I'm of the Puyallup Nation, and was raised to believe it was my
responsibility to always try and make things a little better for my
people.  I've spent about 25 of my 44 years trying to do just that.
I've sat on local and state committees, commission, task forces, you
name it.  I've won enough battles to know how to fight, and lost enough to know how to grieve.  I've grown very tried and decided that if I could make things a little better for just one person at a time, it
would be most useful thing I could ever do with my life.

My spiritual path is the Red Road, and it led me to the prisons - the
Iron Houses.  What I found there angered me more than any injustice I
had ever dealt with because, you see, I take the ability to pray for
granted.  I quickly learned that the brothers and sisters in the Iron
Houses fight almost every day just to pray.  They spend days, months and sometimes years in solitary confinement because they keep pushing to be allowed to pray.  They endure horror and humiliation because they wish to pray.  They had been given creosote-soaked telephone poles to burn on the sacred sweatlodge fire, Eagle fans and feathers have been destroyed, medicine bags desecrated, officers urinating inside the sacred lodge during searches, drums being removed because they are "noisemakers," brothers not allowed to smudge in cells because, "Our research has shown that Indians traditionally smudge outside and don't smudge inside a building."  They are told that they cannot do bead work because "Our research has shown us that although beads have religious significance, beading does not."  Such a simple thing to pray..unless you live in an Iron House.

As I learned more, it become apparent that someone had to do something, and I was there.  After months of hearing the stories, seeing the documentation, and talking with the Native American circles in the
institutions, I began to see a common thread in the abuses: the loss and
destruction of sacred items, and a lack of knowledge and understanding on the part of administration and staff of the  institutions.  With this simplistic view in mind, we (inmates and I) drafted a proposal to DOC that should have cleaned up the majority of the abuses, at no cost and with little effort on the part of DOC.

With this in mind, imagine a year-long quest by one person to tame the
many-headed Beast called DOC.  Along the way, I learned that DOC was an old, greedy beast who knowingly devours the spirits and hearts of Native peoples put into its care.

It began with a series of meetings with Robert Lynn, the manager of the DOC's Religious Programs.  At the end of a third meeting with him, Mr. Lynn finally said, "Yes, I'm aware of the problems, but I have no authority to make things better," so the meetings stopped.  From there, I reached out to the Native community, and they would not hear.  I reached out to the church community, and they were deaf as well.  I reached out to the ACLU, who said, "We've already sued many times, and it hasn't made a difference."

After months and months, I met at last with Chase Riveland, Director of DOC, and again presented the simplistic package that would have
guaranteed that as a brother moved from one facility to another, he
would retain his sacred items, and all DOC staff members would be
trained to recognize and respect spiritual traditions and items of
non-Christian inmates.  And, Mr. Riveland's response was no.  As a
matter of fact, he felt that the Native Americans already had too
much!!  And he was instructing the Religious Programs to cut down on the number of sacred items each brother and sister could have.  He was also instructing that individual sacred pipes be removed from the
institutions.  I finally lost my temper, and said that the brothers
would lay down their lives before they would hand over the pipes to
anyone.  Apparently, that convinced him that we were serious, and he
agreed that the brothers could keep their sacred items and would not
lose any as they moved from Iron House to Iron House.  But that brothers just coming in would be limited to much, much less.  At the end of the meeting, Mr. Riveland, said, "if you don't like this, then sue us."

As you've probably guessed, Riveland broke his treaty with us, and
things just got worse.  So, I took the advice I'm always giving to the
brothers in the Iron Houses - to pray and put it in Grandfather's
hands.  Then a phone call came from the ACLU...could they talk with me, they might be able to help.  So, another meeting was held with two
attorneys from the ACLU, who committed to only presenting the case to the ACLU board for consideration.  Perhaps, a step closer to taming the DOC Beast.

But there is a second beast, and it is an unforgiving and uncaring
creature.  It also is many-headed, and worse yet, it wears Native
faces.  We, the Native peoples, are the ones who feed our children to
the DOC Beast.  We are ashamed that our children, brothers, mothers,
husbands, fathers are in prison so we turn our faces away from them.

I have many brothers and many sons in many Iron Houses.  Most have never seen me, but they have heard my voice scold them, laugh with them, and offer comfort when needed.  There is a young Blackfeet brother taken away from his people when he was 3 months old.  The brother has asked to be taught not only the spiritual path, but how to be Native.  I have searched for a Blackfeet brother or elder to teach this child about his people so that he may stand tall and strong as a Blackfeet, but...everyone is too busy.  Another young brother is Tulalip, who wants to know Longhouse ways, the ways of his people.  I follow the Red Road; I cannot teach him about Longhouse.  Where are the Longhouse elders, brothers and sisters to teach him?  Another brother calls from IMU (solitary confinement) and asks that I light a smudge and pray with him, because he has no one else to call...no one else to pray with.  Another young brother cries because he has put himself in the Iron House and he has two children.  How can he be a good father and keep his children out of the Iron House?  So many questions that I can't answer.

A'ho Mitakuye Oyasin...All My Relations...is more than just words to say after your prayer.  We areall related.  These are our children in the
Iron Houses.  Once a week in every sweatlodge in every Iron House, there are brothers and sisters praying for us, even though we have deserted them.

Where are our elders and teachers who should be supporting their
brothers' efforts to walk a spiritual path?  Where are the free brothers
who should be teaching and encouraging our brothers in the Iron Houses, and the free women who can offer a woman's advice and a woman's comfort?  Where are the elders, brothers and sisters who will sponsor the Native American circles inside the Iron Houses, so that the brothers can meet together in a spiritual way.  Why do so few go to the Iron House Pow Wows to drum and celebrate with their brothers?  Where are the people that will support the efforts of these imprisoned brothers and sisters to find a spiritual path so they can follow that path back home to family and community and to live a good life.  And once home, where are the circles that will let these Iron House brothers join with them?
Where are the brothers and sisters that will teach our children locked
away in cells in the Iron Houses?

I also serve as a volunteer Native American Chaplain for the Pierce
County Jail.  The Christian chaplin in charge of the program has made
special rules for me and the Natives inside...the brothers have to know
my name and phone number before I can come to pray with them, but the jail will not give them my name and phone number.  The brothers can have a bible, but they cannot have a medicine bag.  It's a no-smoking facility, so the brothers can't smudge and be cleaned, and no pipe ceremony can be held.

Where are my brothers and sisters outside of the Iron Houses?  Why are you not standing beside me on the lawn in front of the Jail making
prayer and ceremony?  Where are the drummers and singers who could sing loud enough for the brothers inside to hear.  Where are the
pipe-carriers who could send to Grandfather the prayers that the
brothers inside are not allowed to make.  Why aren't we doing this in
front of the Pierce County jail, the King County jail, the Snohomish
Jail, the Yakima jail....?

Our ancestors knew when to fight to save our children and our families.
How could we have forgotten so much....  There can be no end to this
story..not as long as there is one brother or sister in one Iron House,
state or local, who is not allowed to pray to his or her Creator.  We
must conquer both beasts, one by one and one on one.

To those who do give of yourselves to the brothers and sisters in the
Iron Houses, I send many thanks.  To my brothers in the Iron Houses, I send my love and respect, and repeat again the words I have said so many times, "You will not be forgotten."

I forgot when I sent this to you that it only dealt with Washington State prisons, so I should have explained further.  The article isn't talking about visitors, but sponsors.  WA DOC allows natives to have spiritual circles.  The brothers (and sisters in the women's prison) meet together weekly, and are allowed to sweat weekly.  The hitch is that the circle must be "sponsored" by someone from the outside.  An approved sponsor becomes a "red badge" volunteer.  Sponsors must attend the meetings and the sweats, or the circles cannot meet or sweat.  Those of us supporting the brothers & sisters in Iron Houses are constantly looking for sponsors, and its a never-ending search.  We have circles not allowed to meet and pray together, drum together, speak together because we can't find anyone to sponsor the circles.  We particularly need men, because of course, women are not allowed to attend the sweats (naked men ya' know).   It is one of the
constant frustations that we cannot get the Native community to support these
brothers & sisters, either by sponsoring, attending an Iron House powwow, or even help us in providing the medicines needed for the circle.  Good grief, sage grows aplenty here and there are just a few of us every year that go harvest it and send it into the Iron House.  Folks living next door to sage fields won't lift a hand.

I believe the only way Indian Country is going to solve its problems is by doing it themselves.  We can't expect someone else to help our brothers and sisters heal themselves, get clean, and get ready for a good life.   Yet, I feel like I'm speaking to an empty room when I put out a call for help for these brothers & sisters locked up in our prisons...which is 4% of the prison population, when we're are less than 2% of the general population.