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February
27 2006
Dear
friends of the Buffalo,
Throughout my life I have resisted suppression. Even before
my boarding school days I resisted to the powerful expression
of being told what to do as a method of control. My grandfather
taught me the skill of passive resistance from his long years
Agaof working for the HIS as one of the first Native medical
doctors. His grandfather taught him the skill from being exiled
from Minnesota, being held prisoner in Mankato and the final
solution at Crow Creek. My roots of passive resistance come
from historical beginnings and conditions.
Over the past forty years of my life I have been involved
with the final solution to the Yellowstone buffalo. My clan
grandfather Robert Yellowtail received a herd of buffalo from
Yellowstone Park that the tribe pastured in the Big Horn Mountains.
In the 1960s the state of Montana had the entire herd executed
because of brucellosis. Like before when the government rounded
up all the Crow horses and executed them, the government rounded
up the buffalo and killed them, every last one.
Many people do not understand the relationship between buffalo
and people. Many people see the buffalo as a big furry animal,
but many of the Native people see the buffalo as the pure
sacred. Some Native People have never allowed the buffalo
to stray from their prayer, but many have forgotten our relationship.
There is a hopeful movement to change this positioning by
educating our youth with story and experience.
As we all see the world in our days of conflict over religious
beliefs and sacred sites it is important to understand the
relationship to the sacred and be humble rather than defiant
so I try to relax in my resistant behavior around others.
It is important to understand the responsibilities of freedom
while honoring others. Though I have the right to mow my lawn
at any time I respect the right of my neighbors and allow
them the peace of sleeping in on the weekends and I mow the
lawn in the afternoon. In this respect I understand the privilege
of hunting but do not support murder, assassination, or execution
of sacred life forms.
Recently the state of Montana re-established a hunt of the
wild buffalo that exit Yellowstone Park looking for food and
space. As of today, Montana and Yellowstone Park have executed
over nine hundred buffalo, most of which were done in one
month. During one hazing event Montana agents chased buffalo
out onto a semi-frozen lake where twelve broke through the
ice and two drown. During the hunting process the non Native
hunters are allowed to hunt as they wish, but written into
the law the Native hunters are to perform ceremonies in order
to participate in the execution process.
To understand hunting, one must first understand the need
to hunt for food verses the need to control population, and
the need to kill for sport. Somewhere in this equation are
the reasons for all hunting. To kill for some hunter is to
inflict great pain and suffering to the one being killed,
to assassinate, is to kill without the target knowing the
killer, to harvest is for the target to know the hunter and
give themselves for sustenance of the hunter. All hunting
falls into one of these areas. The Yellowstone final solution
is more along a new path of removal and would be considered
execution because of homeland security for the cattle industry.
As we near the one thousand mark I ask myself what can I do
and I always come up with boycott Montana beef. I personally
do not wish to disrespect life in any form so I do not disrespect
the cattle. I support the ability of tracking beef and all
food products. I want to know if the animals are treated humanely
or if they are left in muddy fields of urine and slop before
they are murdered for human consumption. I want the animals
that I eat honored in their life, as I want the buffalo honored
with integrity in their life.
So I have decided to boycott beef until the slaughter stops.
I will ask if I am being served Montana beef and I will refuse
paying for it. I will pray for the Montana cows, but I will
not pay the Montana cattle grower, until the slaughter stops.
This is my action as my statement when the one thousand mark
is attained. I announce this as a passive resistant act of
defiance to the governor, the state, and the reason behind
the slaughter until they discontinue their act of violence
of the sacred. I welcome all supporters to write to the governor
and voice their non-support of the state of Montana's insistence
on executing the Buffalo of Yellowstone.
Ehnamani 06 |
