From: "Kii yaa tuk" <howanji@hotmail.com>
Greetings---
I wanted to write and let you know how things were going here in
Neah Bay, at least from my perspective. And no, I am not starting
a Neah Bay Diary---just had this swelling sense of pride and warmth in
all that is being done and seeing the results so clearly evident is something
I had to share with you. I am not Makah and am only an ordinary man
sharing what I have seen and learned on this part of my journey to the
spirit world.
Saturday morning ( April 15, 2000) I arose early, said
my morning prayers, smudged, and left our home here to go to Clallam Bay
to do some errands. When I drove back to the Nation I saw a huge
eagle was sitting on a tree at the reservation border and thought how he
had come and was guarding and looking over the Nation. I drove on
and came to where a roadblock was set up by the Tribal Police.
A long time local anti treaty advocate and now an organizer of the
weekly road protests of the coalition of racist and militant eco terrorist
anti-whaling factions, had already been turned around and headed back off
the Makah Nation. Despite what he may later release, he was not a
happy camper and held himself with shame and dishonor. As the other
protesters were turned around they had to drive back along the line of
cars and trucks of residents of the village and village guests. The
protesters were not full of bravado as they appear to want to be seen on
the internet and in the public. Some of them were in tears, none
of them were smiling, and although honking their horns to give each other
comfort, none of them would look up into the eyes of the people who's traffic
they had blocked and whose homes they had intended on invading and disrupting.
No doubt they will claim this a victory of some sort, but they did not
leave the Makah Nation as victors. They left as the dispelled intruders
that they are into the sovereign Makah Nation.
Driving through the roadblocks toward the village I did not see
Tribal Police Officers, I saw warriors of a Nation defending that Nations
borders against harmful invasion. On the waters were other warriors,
United States Coast Guard. All of these warriors, both Native and
non-Native, stood with pride, honor, dignity, and purpose. We often
speak of such things, and many have seen such things first hand, but to
see it in this way was an experience that touched me deeply.
After driving past the barriers, and then a couple of miles into
the village, I saw a totally different scene. I saw a village by
the ocean where children were riding their bikes on a sunny day.
Young mothers were walking pushing their babies in strollers. The
village was at peace, safe and protected. Almost oblivious to the
conflict that had just happened a few miles away. And this is what
was so profound to me and to me speaks to the heart of why we have done
what we have done over the past several months in CERTAIN and by many other
organizations of all races of People during the years of the struggle for
the People.
It is about the People. The People's right to be safe.
The rights of all young children to be able to safely play with each other,
to ride bicycles, the rights for young mothers to be able to take their
babies into the spring sunshine. The right to do all these things
without fear of anti-Native or eco terrorist militants invading the villages
of the People to wreak as much havoc as possible and to try and intimidate
the People into submission of values that are foreign, that are not capable
of bringing the medicines and healings to the People who have survived
the greatest holocaust in known history.
The hearts and eyes of the people who sought to invade this tiny
village see their fancy websites and boats. Their ears hear the emotions
of protests fueled with the energies of hatred and self righteousness.
What their eyes cannot see and what their ears cannot hear are the innocent
ones, the children, who live and play in this village. These people
speak of protecting the whales, and make arguments that the whale that
was killed was a three year old "baby". They speak freely of death
to stop this hunt to protect the "baby" whales. And as understandable
as those emotions may or may not be, the very fact that these same people
continue to want to invade this village, putting the "babies" of this Nation
at peril and fear reduces these Native American babies to less than the
whales in their minds. Not even affording the young ones here
the equal dignity of at least being equally as deserving of a "safe passage"
through life as they advocate for the whales, but making the babies of
the Makah Nation expendable to reach their goals of imposition of their
political agendas.
These "protesters" websites and public relations project lofty ideals
of animal rights and advance rationalizations attempting to justify violence
and sabotage as a moral act, but the reality is, and what they do not project,
is that their specific intent and focus is to drive into a village where
children play and mothers walk their babies and to bring their hatred to
be vented. Despite the pictures of smiling faces and emotional pleas
for support, these protesters seek to intimidate and terrorize even children
playing in the sun. I know this is true because I saw the village
the protesters would have driven into had they not been stopped.
I know this is true because the stated intent of these protesters is to
cause as much harm to the community economically as possible and to use
the tourist's "avoidance" of Neah Bay as a weapon.
What the protesters do not see and are blind to is that People come
to this village, many of them for long periods of time, because it is the
quietness of the village and place of Neah Bay itself they seek. They come
here to get away from the insanity of cities and the use of violence and
the noises of disruption. These people see the protesters as they truly
are, people who have no respect, honor, or pride in how they want to come
to the village and terrorize the women and children. The protesters
will make claims a boycott of Neah Bay is working, then finding there is
no support for such a boycott have resorted to attempting physical blocking
of the road to prevent people from coming. The enemy the protesters
declare their "war to save the whales" on is not just the Makah Nation,
but it is upon anyone who does behave or act as the protesters desire.
In doing so their army has alienated supporters and solidified opposition,
and yet they continue to stalk the village which translates directly into
terrorizing women and children on the streets of Neah Bay.
These protesters cannot see outside themselves because they cannot
stand back and see their own actions and how ruthless and cowardly their
invasions upon the children truly are. These invaders have not looked and
cannot see into the what their own human dignity means.
Seeing how the Warriors stood strong at the border, seeing
how people from all around the world have diligently worked to stand with
the Makah Nation, seeing how the whalers and the community stand strong
in the face of pressure, and seeing an Eagle looking over the People brought
me to a place of understanding something I have long sought to understand
but had to experience to grasp it. Standing together we are a strong
People who are fully capable of all we had ever dreamed of realizing.
We are no longer continuing on the path of being victims of the past, but
together, all People who have worked towards that moment that day have
learned and now know what it is to hold the Power of the Peace to step
into the future and it is happening.
Today I am relieved. I feel as though a weight has been lifted
from me. I know the valiant efforts of so many people has worked
to help restore balance to the dynamics working in this conflict.
The Makah Nation has withstood the frontal attack of some of the most powerful
protest groups in action today. The Makah Nation has stood strong
in their commitment to exercise their rights to self-determination in regards
to the Steven's Treaty of 1855. In so doing, the Makah Nation has
stood strong for all aboriginal treaty rights the world over. And
the government of the United States, by showing and demonstrating its acknowledgment
and support of that Treaty has stepped upon a Healing Road that has been
prayed for and waited on for generations. The Makah Nation is stronger,
the United States is stronger, and people around the world are stronger
due to the value of respecting the core meaning of what Treaties negotiated
between Nations reflect and translate to in day to day life.
I was meeting with a real veteran of Wounded Knee not long ago and
heard her wisdom gained through years of struggles and seeking healing
of the People. She had told me that one of the problems facing all
Native American People is not being able to live up to the images of our
ancestors. The problem that comes is we look at ourselves in today's
world and feel we cannot compare with the People who lived before us.
We feel inadequate. Who could live up to being Crazy Horse, Sitting
Bull, Geronimo, Cochise, Chief Joseph?
But here were the Makah. They are just like us she said.
Speak the same language, wear the same clothes. And they DID what
their ancestors did. And because they can do that, we all can do
that. And because they did it, we all did it. We counted on
them to do this for us. And whether she knew it or not, this wise
elder spoke words for all People on Turtle Island. Because the ordinary
people who did an extra ordinary thing did what was done, we all can do
that. Because they did it, we all did it. We counted on them
to do this for us.
The images of a wooden canoe, surrounded by jet skis, ships, powerboats
fill my mind as I have looked over and over at the images of that event
and time in the spring of 1999. Although completely surrounded by
the most advanced technology and skilled animal rights and racially motivated
superstars of the protest industry, the ordinary men in a wooden canoe
prevailed through simple determination and dedicated preparations.
The cameras of the world saw Native America in victory bringing healing
to their People.
Some people say stories have a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
Turtle Island and the many Nations represented on Turtle Island have long
ago embarked as a gathering place for People from the four directions.
The winds and the water worked towards bringing all the Nations of the
world to one place where the other faces could be known and recognized.
It was the power of dreams that pulled People to stand on this Sacred Land.
On Turtle Island there is no beginning, middle, and end, there is only
the endless connection of all things in equal balance and relationships.
There are those who disagree with what the Makah Nation has chosen
to do. There are those who choose to exercise their rights to disagree.
All that can be asked of you is that you remember that when you invade
into any community to do harm that it is the day of the children you will
have stolen. The day of riding bikes with friends. The day
of mothers walking with children. The day of Peace all People in
all lands have waited so long in time to receive. Peace is not a
noun, it is a verb, a power and an energy in action and in motion.
Peace is gift we first have to give to ourselves in order to give to others.
The Makah Nation, through years and generations of conflict and
struggle, have striven for and earned their Peace. It was not given
to them from anyone and thus it cannot be taken from them by anyone.
And we each and every one of us have to make that same commitment to find
that Peace in our own hearts to have a place to stand with each other as
part of that connectedness of the Sacred Hoop of Turtle Island and all
other Nations of the world. The invasions of simple, small, isolated
villages to terrorize the community and children has to end. And
in the end it is the protesters themselves that have to give themselves
the Peace needed to be able to stand and face other People with pride and
not the shame I saw in their faces this past Saturday. There is no honor
in this, and it is known in the faces and hearts of the ones who tried.
I saw into your faces and know you are aware of what I speak.
It has been an honor, a blessing, and a journey together that I
and my family are thankful for having been able to make together with all
the many People who are also walking this road towards the Healing of the
Sacred Hoop. I have learned from each of you, both from our allies
and from those who would threaten the Peace and homes, safety, and lives
of the children. And I learned a lesson from the Eagle sitting sentinel
in that tree Saturday that the Power of the Peace spoken of by Black Elk
lives and is strong. It is a reality we can all share and feed upon.
In Honor and Respect of the many voices that make up One Voice---Ho
Wanji
Mitakuye Oyasin
Kii yaa tuk (Keith
Hunter)
P. O. Box 482
Neah Bay, Washington 98367