' A PERSPECTIVE OF CHEROKEE RESISTANCE, OCCUPATION, SELF-DEFENSE AND SOVEREIGNITY '

' A PERSPECTIVE OF CHEROKEE RESISTANCE, OCCUPATION, SELF-DEFENSE AND SOVEREIGNTY '

By Mike Raccoon Eyes Kinney


As a Cherokee Native Advocate and a writer about Indian Country for many years, I have many grave concerns about Human and Civil Rights abuses of both the Canadian and United States governments, that are direct violation nations and international accords that both countries have signed in regards to First Nations Indigenous Peoples.

I have written and lectured extensively about the 'New Indian Wars', this essay is a close examination of Cherokee Resistance and Self-Defense.

Rolling Thunder, a Cherokee Doctor and activist, once stated: " I am NOT good material to be dictated to by any white man as to what I can do and where I can go on MY LAND!"

In the the 1830's then United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Jon Marshall, ruled the Cherokee were a sovereign nation. The had offered a brilliant legal defense in the issue of sovereignty. As Clyde Warrior once noted; The Cherokees...are a very legal-minded people. They want to try everything that is right and proper. Because they believe that if they do everything that is legal and proper that justice will prevail."(1) As was the the case of Cherokee sovereignty in the 1830's as an example.

Warrior made this comment in 1966, resulting in a trial of full-blood Cherokee man named John Chewie. Who was to stand trial ay a county courthouse in Jay,Oklahoma for charges of 'illegally hunting deer on traditional Cherokee land held in trust by the federal government by Oklahoma state authorities.

While the trial was starting 400 full-blood Cherokee men armed with hunting rifles, shotguns and hand pistols surrounded the county courthouse and were duly prepared to defend the life of Chewie and Cherokee sovereignty.

Warrior observed: "What the Cherokee fail to see is that the American system, nothing is done legally, honestly or truthfully. Now when they find out, they are going to be pretty damn mad. If that(the legal way) fails, then VIOLENCE will take place. The country should take HEED."(2)

In the late 1830's the Indian Killer, President Andrew Jackson defied the US Supreme Court ruling and started a new policy of relocation, along with racial and ethnic cleansing. The Cherokee would be the very first victims of this 100 year policy that would forever change the world of Native America.

Almost 100 years later, Adolph Hitler would use the same exact blueprint of relocation, concentration camps and ethnic cleansing in what he termed the Final Solution. Hitler had studied and read carefully, how the Indian Killer had instituted the 'Final Solution'for the Cherokee.

For the full and mixed blood Cherokees in the high hills of eastern Oklahoma on the fringe of the Ozarks and through the traditional homelands of Appalachia have been and still entrenched in an appalling culture of cycle of poverty, hopelessness and violence. In rural Cherokee Country conditions have not improved for the past 100 years. People face daily starvation, with a back drop of high unemployment or no jobs. Drug and alcohol addictions and domestic violence is out of control. Illiteracy and high school drop outs exceeds the national average. Hunger and malnutrition is common place.

This is how it always has been in rural Cherokee Country for the past 180 years to the present! A violent time bomb ready to explode! The factors of historic poverty and the issue of Cherokee sovereignty has always been a keg of dynamite that was then and still is ready to blow among rural Cherokee Country.

By the late 1960's ,in rural Cherokee Country in east Oklahoma starvation was out of control. According to historical sources entire villages and hamlets were suffering on massive level. Traditional full blood Cherokee men decided to respond to the challenge and violating both federal and state laws, began to hunt deer on traditional Cherokee land.

The full-bloods met in secret to address the issues of starvation and Cherokee sovereignty- the right to hunt on their own CHEROKEE LAND. Hundreds of men formed the 'Five County Cherokee Movement. They drafted there own Cherokee Declaration of Independence in the winter of 1966. 'We meet in atime of darkness to seek the path to the light. We come together, just as our father's have done, to do these things...we the Five County Cherokees are one People. We stand united in the sight of our Creator. We are joined by love and concern for each other and for all men..."

We offer ourselves as a voice of the Cherokee People. For many years our People have not spoken and have not been heard. Now we gather as brothers and sisters... We insist on equality under the laws of the United States. We act now peaceably but firmly to carry out THE WISHES OF OUR PEOPLE...We do this for the benefit of all Cherokees. We do this as a good example to all men. Already we have gathered to protect our rights to harvest fish and game to feed ourselves and children..."(3)

So in the winter of 1966, the Movement became a high mark for the advancement of Cherokee sovereignty. Hundreds of men were hunting in the old traditional Cherokee land in the high hills of east Oklahoma. Movement men including John Chewie hunted in small bands to bring deer to the dinner table. The State of Oklahoma-department of Wildlife arrested and charged John for possession of deer meat out season and having no license to hunt , when he was 'caught' by game wardens.

When Movement men had received word of his arrest and pending trial, his brothers quietly encircled the small town of Jay and the courthouse where Chewies trial would take place. Movement men brought their rifles, shotguns and pistols; about 400 in number to defend John's life and Cherokee sovereignty if need be.(4) Chewie had become the the shining icon to Indian Country for the issue of Native sovereignty to hunt on native lands that were claimed by federal and state jurisdictions.

Fearing both violence and bloodshed, the State of Oklahoma legal system decided to pass John's case on to the federal court level in order to AVOID AN ARMED CONFRONTATION WITH THE MOVEMENT MEN.

Not only had the Five County Cherokee Movement been heard and spoken, it had won the first round in it's advocacy for Cherokee sovereignty and the long hard road for the advancement for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country! A-ho!


source quotes:(1)(2)(3)(4)from 'The New Indians-Stan Steiner 1968 Delta

MIXED BLOOD NATIVES-THE SILENCE OF INDIAN COUNTRY

MIXED BLOOD NATIVES-THE SILENCE OF INDIAN COUNTRY

BY MIKE RACCOON EYES KINNEY

As was discussed in 'Mixed Blood Natives-The Silence of Indian Country' (Part-1),
Quanah Parker as a mixed blood Native made the decision to leave one culture and enter into another culture.

The story of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminloe has a similar theme as well. The Cherokee culture was steeped deeply into the great Meso-American pyramid temple cities as early as 800 A.D. When the Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayans and Aztecs were moving from North to into the South deep into Mexico and Central America, they quickly absorbed and embraced building their own great pyramid temple spiritual cities they had observed and seen in the great Cherokee cities of the Southeast.

Cherokee intermarriage to both the Mexican and Central Americans would become the norm for the next 300 years. The mixed blood Cherokees would hold a high place of honor within the Meso-American world of Mexico and Central America. For the mixed blood Cherokee of the time were the priests, prophets, engineers and administrators, who were the elite of running the new spiritual pyramid temple cities of both Mexico and Central America. Without the mixed blood Cherokees, the great pyramid temple cities in Mexico and Central America would cease to run, much less function.

The Cherokee started having intergenerational marriage and 'sexual relationships with the Europeans in the early 1700's. Many Cherokee bands and families were quick to see the economic benefits of having trade, land and business dealings with Europeans. In a sense this could be viewed as a classic Cherokee version of the 'hang around the fort Indians'. However this story was not true for the majority of mixed blood Cherokee people of that time!

For the the upper class elite of mixed blood Cherokee of the late 1700s and early 1800s, it was not uncommon for them to have extensive plantations, a lavish life-style that would have not been uncommon in London or Paris and a sizable work force of African slaves. Many well to do mixed blood Cherokee were highly educated in New York, Washington D.C. or even London.

The preference of mixed blood Cherokee men of the time were to marry European or other mixed blood Cherokee women. Their children and grandchildren would follow suit. The new generation of light-skinned mixed blood bourgeoisie Cherokee would wash their hands of and renounce the traditional ways of Cherokee culture and Spirituality.

However, there was another side to the mixed blood Cherokee people, that has been neglected and treated with silence. The story is that of the traditional mixed blood Cherokee that retained their cultural and Spiritual identities.

The traditional mixed blood Cherokee lived along the side of their full blood cousins in the pre-1830's in large rural wilderness areas that were isolated communities of families and bands in vast tracks of land through out the greater Southeast of the U.S.

Even during the days of post Contact, while the Europeans were eco-raping the land, extensive outreach by the missionaries to convert out People by force and the Federals in league with newly established State of Georgia authorities were to use brutal and ruthless tactics to remove remove the Real People from our lands with the discovery of gold, both mixed and full blood Cherokee people still retained an amazing amount of sovereignty and autonomy because they knew both spiritually and culturally they were the Creator's original Holy People.

The Indian Killer Jackson enforced the new Indian Removal Act at the heart land of our Great Cherokee Nation in the mid and late 1830s. Bluecoat soldiers started first with the Cherokee in the new policy or ethnic cleansing, relocation and the reservation system. So began 'Our Trail of Our Tears. where 20,000 Cherokee were relocated to Indian Territory. No one was spared! Not full or mixed bloods or even the bourgeoisie Cherokee were spared from Jackson's vision of hell to kill our People!

However, large pockets of both mixed and full blood Cherokee families and bands did manage to escape and offer a sizable resistance coming from Cherokee country. My own family, the Raccoon Eyes were one such family. My Great, great, great, Grandmother- Polly Raccoon Eyes was born in 1714 in Rowan County, North Carolina, she was a full blood woman of the Eastern Band. When Polly was 12 years of age she was a domestic to the Newsome family. In the year 1726, Polly and the Newsome family walked some 400 miles from North Carolina to our family village in Southeast Kentucky.

They would eventually settle in the high hills and river country at a location called Sooky's Creek. Sooky's Creek was our old historical family village and it had old burial mounds of our Cherokee ancestors dating back so 4,000 years. It was the homeland of the Raccoon Eyes band. Elder Newsome a white Englishman would leave his wife and family to join Polly as his common law wife. From the time she was 18 years of age and older, Polly would bear some 12 sons and daughter in their union.

It was here that the mixed blood lineage of the Raccoon Eyes family would begin at our family village at Sooky's Creek. It was here where the Raccoon Eyes family would fight a successful guerilla war against Jackson's Bluecoat Indian killers.
The mixed blood Cherokee were killing high numbers of Bluecoat soldiers in Southeast Kentucky. However bullets were running low for the long rifles, hunger and starvation were abundant and the hard brutal winters were taking it's toll on the children, women and Elders in the campaign against the Bluecoats and their allies.

The mixed and full blood elders and ancestors had to make the decision to surrender and turn themselves in so they could survive as a People! They were forced to take missionary surname, embrace a alien Deity and the most hideous of act all... to have forced sexual relations with the white conquerors. The ultimate goal and reason our Cherokee men and women did this for was to keep lightening and lightening our skin color until we could 'pass for white'. It was the only way as the Real Cherokee People could survive and not become victims of more ethnic cleansing.

Until a generation of fair-skinned, Blue-eyed Cherokee was created! It was the most painful and heart-breaking decisions that our Elders made at the time! BUT WHAT ELSE COULD THEY HAVE DONE?? But we have fulfilled their dream to be alive and celebrate our survival as a People.

I honor and give thanks to my Elder's decisions to let the Raccoon Eyes family to continue to live and exist! And their are hundreds of thousands of we mixed blood Cherokee people alive today to tell our stories and celebrate that we the REAL PEOPLE are still here! We are just as a part of the history of Indian Country as any other Native people! I always celebrate Native folks who look like us.

Like Quanah Parker who chose to leave his Father's world and live among his Mother's world, I chose some 35 years ago to leave my Mother's mainstream world and enter into my Father's world of being who and what I truly am.....a Native Man!
Cousins, I tell it was the best decision I ever made. To reclaim my Culture, my Spirituality and most importantly my....life!

We can no longer afford as mixed blood People of Turtle Island to sit in silence and ignorance of the reality of who we are as true Native People! We can no longer sit back and attack ourselves, beat ourselves up and pound ourselves for crimes we have NEVER committed. It now time to view we mixed blood Native People, with good self-esteem, good self-worth and good self value. For this was the Creator's plan!
Remember all WE Native People are the Creator's Holy People!

Wado and A-ho my Brothers and Sisters,

THE WOMEN OF THE GLEN COVE MOVEMENT

WOMEN OF THE OCCUPATION AND RESISTANCE OF THE GLEN COVE SHELLMOUND MOVEMENT IN VALLEJO,CA.

SHANE GRAY HELPING TO FREE LEONARD

Shane Gray the grassroots Advocate signman to free Leonard Peltier made a stop at the Richmond City Council meeting to get support from the community to bring awareness to Leonard April 7, 2011 inn Richmond, CA.

foto and text: Mike Raccoon Eyes

PROTECT GLEN COVE SACRED SITE: APRIL 14 AT SUNSET! WE NEED EVERYONE TO REPORT FOR DUTY TO PREVENT THE ECO-RAPE OF THE SHELLMOUND BY BULLDOZERS!

ALL WARRIORS FOR THE ANCESTORS:


The Protect Glen Cove Committee and the Board of Directors of Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT) have received information that leads us to believe that the desecration of Glen Cove will begin on April 15, 2011.

We are calling for an ASSEMBLY of all Warriors to gather on April 14, 2011 in front of SSP&RIT headquarters at 400 Keats Drive, Vallejo, California.

SSP&RIT will host a prayer ceremony on site. Be prepared to actively protest this assault at Glen Cove. Cameras and video cameras are a must, if you have them. Walkie-talkies are needed for communications. Bring you cell phone chargers.

Bring your sacred medicine and join our prayer circle at Glen Cove. If you can't make the trip, please make a phone call and keep the phone lines of GVRD and the City of Vallejo busy. (see numbers below)


ALL WARRIORS WHO WILL ANSWER THIS CALL: This is a NON-VIOLENT and PEACEFUL protest. NO WEAPONS, NO DRUGS, NO ALCOHOL!

April 7th UPDATE:
GVRD and contractors were meeting at Sogorea Te today (April 7). They refused to listen to our concerns, refused to identify themselves or their employers and tried to harass and intimidate SSP&RIT members and their supporters. The police were called by Steve Pesley of GVRD, but no arrests or interference resulted. Representatives of the Times Herald were on hand and interviewed Wounded Knee.

The contractors intend to fence the ancestors in to protect their equipment. The also intend to employ roving security at the site. We expect that this fence will go up on the 13th or 14th of April.

The contractor is Carone & Company, Inc. Make a call and voice your objections to them:
(925) 602-8800
5009 Forni Drive, Concord, CA 94520


DONATIONS REQUESTED
We are now requesting donations for an Emergency Defense Fund. Funds are needed to purchase supplies, food, photocopies, sanitation, signs, etc. Please contribute if you can!
Donations can be made online with a credit/debit card or a bank account, and will be processed securely. To donate, visit:
https://www.wepay.com/donate/137138


Reminder: ALL FRONTLINE SUPPORTERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED WITH THE SECRETARY ARE URGED TO SEND THEIR E-MAIL AND CELL PHONE # TO:
secretary.ssp_rit@yahoo.com


Numbers to call:
Greater Vallejo Recreation Department: 707-648-4600
City of Vallejo Mayor: 707-648-4377
Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper: 707-644-1141
Times-Herald fax number: 707-643-0128
Carone & Company, Inc. (contracters): (925) 602-8800

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TRY TO SAVE RICHMOND CHURCH

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TRY TO SAVE RICHMOND CHURCHText and fotos: Mike Raccoon Eyes

RICHMOND,CA- Today community activists, clergy and government officials attending a rally in front of the Bible Way Apostolic Church. The church under the direction of Pastor Sidney Keys had the support of Congressman George Miller and Contra Costa Board of Supervisor John Gioia in lieu of having been served evication papers last week.

THE MECHANICS OF NATIVE DREAM TIME

'THE MECHANICS OF NATIVE DREAM TIME '



By Mike Raccoon Eyes







As a Spirit Man I tell you when you look at a vision, it is like looking at mists and shadows. As Native spiritual person, it will take you years to interpret what you are really seeing. In the Old days our People didn't call them visions. We called it seeiing or the ability to see.



For many of us, seeing usually comes in dreams. This is not like a dream, when you sleep and have dreams come in fragments. Visions are quite clear and you remember the dream again, quite cleary!



Where as with a 'nightmare', you may questionis it a dream or not. But it lingers and wafts within your mind, it slowly drifts away when you try to examine it more closely. In the dream-vision state, you can recall every detail and look closely; and examine everything that happened. Every detail is recorded for you spiritual review.



As you become more skillrd into understanding and interpreting your visions, you can know something you that you NEVER saw anything about! But when the thought comes into your mind, more than likely out of your mouth! You did'nt mean to say it-but you say it never the less.



What you are saying is so, but you NEVER saw anything else other than your vision to inform you of it! It should be know that "Speaking Out" is also one of the traits that is a part of seeing.



When you master this in Sared Time, you will see- It is a different kind of power, a different kind of energy and a different kind of strength. So it will reflect from a spiritual place, a differnt kind of thinking. A-ho!