Observations and random thoughts Vol. 2018 1.8
By WILLIAM LEDFORD
I read the opinion regarding intravenous drug users who are currently guests of our local Heartbreak Hotel and the used syringes that are now everywhere on the Rez. I identify because Albuquerque has recently closed down and fenced off a city park due of the addicted homeless population and needles everywhere. Anybody with a few hundred thousand bucks stashed in a side pocket can now own a park in ‘Burque. Of course there are conditions, it has to remain a park and you will be responsible for maintenance and security. But, I digress…again. I totally agree that under a work-release program inmates could be detailed to clean up all of the shooting galleries we now have on the Rez. No one wants to get stuck by a random needle and get anyone else’s hepatitis or HIV or any other crud they may have cruisin’ in their systems.
In the world of politics, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who is Prez Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, was accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford while both were teens. Other people came forward to detail additional assaults and his drunken behavior while at college. He responded with an obviously rehearsed angry rant against a left-wing conspiracy. We now have two men accused of deviant sexual behavior sitting on the SCOTUS, Judges Thomas and Kavanaugh. These judges aren’t very open to cases involving Native sovereign rights and so, with those cases soon the come to the Court, the battle rages on.
Elizabeth Warren, whom the big dumb orange world leader likes to call Pocahontas, (he really just doesn’t get it) took Trump up on his offer to pay 1 million bucks to a charity of her choice if she took a DNA test to prove that somewhere in her ancestry she had Native blood. She did, and according to the test, she does. Good on her. Naturally he denied making the million dollar offer even though he was recorded saying it. And he made a counteroffer, a very creepy counteroffer where he said he would test her himself. As a side note Don Trump Jr’s girlfriend whom he’s sporting around while divorcing his wife stated that she was the real Pocahontas. I will never get these people and I don’t get Native people that support Trump and his family of DA’s.
All of this was ok, Fox News resident Anglo contributors and selected apples made their stupid remarks and then…the Cherokee Nation involved themselves. Chuck Hoskin, the Nation’s Secretary of State, a guy who is most likely a Trump supporter since most Okie Cherokees are, stated that she is “undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.” To that I ask, “How?” LOL, that last statement was an unintended stereotypical pun, sorry ‘bout that but, yeah…I don’t get it. Senator Warren is not trying to enroll. In fact, she’s very proud to have ‘skin heritage’. For a long, long time Native peoples were scattered, were made to feel ashamed of their heritage and as a result many denied it so to see someone actually proud to possibly have Native ancestry makes me feel good. With us, it’s only been recently, mostly because of per capita, that people have gotten over their shame and returned to enroll in the EBCI.
To me, the joke is on the Cherokee Nation because their system of tribal enrollment is simply based upon someone’s ancestor being listed on the Dawes Roll, not blood quantum like us but that’s OK, tribes set their enrollment criteria however they wish. However, it’s much, much harder to enroll in the EBCI and even more so in the Western tribes. But now I have another question. Who out there has had someone come up to you at least once and state that their great-great grandmother was an Indian princess? It might be true, we were scattered in the wind way back when simply to escape abuse and punishment for being whom we are.
I saw a familiar name while perusing the One Feather site. I am happy to see Joe Martin back with the paper. My parrots and ducks like his stuff also. They must, they seem to aim right for his byline. Jokes Joe! Welcome back! Let’s you and me start some trouble!
Ok, I’m done. It’s time to go back to house. Remember to have a banana daily. Potassium and colon health in a yellow skin. Remember, gotta eat ‘em for them to work.
Ledford is an EBCI tribal member currently residing in Albuquerque, NM.
