He Really Doesn’t Know?

Halito Brothers & Sisters!

I want to give a yakoke chito to all those who marched in the cold drizzle at Durant’s Idle No More rally.  I want to say yakoke to those who held signs on main street to the cheers and jeers of drivers on the street.  We will take the jeers as well as the cheers because we know in our hearts we are doing what is right.  We know it.  Who would not want to see native people’s rights upheld and their treaties honored?  Who would not stand in support of a Chief who was willing to starve to death for her people?  As mentioned in a previous blog Chief Theresa Spence was fighting for the land rights of her people, the education of her people and the human rights of her people (over 600 disappearances, deaths and rapes of Native Canadian women in the last decade).

We also heard that many CNO employees were told “no go”.  I was disgusted as I look to the northeast and see the Muskogee Creek Chief and 2nd Chief not only send out words of encouragement concerning the Idle No More movement but stand with their tribal brothers and sisters in unity on their capital grounds.  Meanwhile our people live in fear of losing their jobs if they attend.  That’s right OUR people not the non-Chahta’s employed by the CNO but OUR people.

A young man I don’t know very well but whom I liked much (he and his wife) contacted our Chief’s office and was told that while Chief Greg Pyle wasn’t sure where he stood on the Idle No More movement he would not fire anyone who chose to attend a rally.  You have got to be kidding me!  So if you don’t stand for it then you stand FOR broken treaties and the human rights violations of some 600 native women?  There is no gray area here!  No wonder Chahta people are among the most abused and oppressed workforce (and those who would like to work for their own tribe) in the nation!  If our own Chief won’t stand for what’s right then we as a people who are vested in our culture and our right to exist are doomed as constituents of this straw manned nahullo loving government.

I am embarrassed.  I am mainly embarrassed that this wasn’t even a response from Chief Pyle this was from his nahollo gatekeeper the same white woman who has found her family high paying positions and controls who visits, what is said and what the chief sees.  She is basically chief.  Her qualifications at the time of hire?  She was his neighbor.  This is who is unsure of where Chief Pyle stands on the Idle No More Movement.  It is this woman who writes his quotes (except of course for the one I wrote), answers his phone and dares to speak for our Chief.  Who lets her?  Once again, our chief.  Not my chief.  My Chief would have been the organizer of the Durant Idle No More rally.  My Chief would have made a speech and brought hot food and drink.  My Chief would give our tribe a Choctaw Employee Rights Organization.  My Chief would have stood out there with other Chahta men and stopped traffic while the women leading the march across I-75 made their way safely to the other side.  My Chief would have yelled with the rest of us “IDLE NO MORE”!

If you my Chahta sister or brother have not joined your people in the fight to rid ourselves of this illusion of democracy then you haven’t felt the feeling of community and belonging that all of us felt that night at Durant’s INM event.  It was so cold but you know what was colder,  the winter storm our ancestors traveled through to get to Oklahoma.  Now that was cold enough to take out a full fourth of your family, imagine what that must have felt like.  It’s this feeling that prevents us from ever being a money driven corporation.

There is one more thing I want to stress.  There is difference between Nahollo (stingy, greedy) and Tohbi (white).  There were tohbi spouses at our Chahta INM event.  There was a tohbi spouse holding a sign on main street.  She faced the same jeers and cheers that we Chahta did and she did it because she knows what it means to our people, she learns our language and she breaks bread with us.  To her I say, your grace and generosity is inspirational.  Your integrity and your bravery in the face of ridicule is to be admired.

For all my Chahta family know that we marched for all native people this past Saturday but we will never stop marching for you, who are our family until we can rest assured that our nation is once again in Chahta control.

Chi Hollo Li,

CW

 

On The Eve

Sisters & Brothers chim achukma?

I am putting the finishing touches on my signs for the Idle No More rally tomorrow night.  And I have been on my facebook page (you can friend Choctaw Wright on facebook) reading all the posts concerning the growing excitement about tomorrow’s event.  I had a comment about why the rally didn’t start earlier.  I was told today there is a Tulsa rally earlier in the day and many Tulsa Indians are driving down to Durant after their rally to attend the Durant event.  A good friend of mine was asked to speak about the Poarch Creek controversy but politely declined because he wanted to stand with his Chahta people here, in the most politically charged district of the CNO.

People are hungry for change aren’t they?  Or I should say Native People are hungry for change.  Broken treaties, cultural annihilation, death, destruction, greed have all taken their toll on our identity as a people and thank the Creator Indian Country peoples are finally coming together united for a cause.  We, for the time being, are one people.  And although most tribal government leaders support the movement it is the grass roots organizers who are responsible for the Idle No More movement sweeping the nation.  But even that would not be possible without Indians attending these events.

My Chahta family this may be the only chance you will have for years to stand with your brothers and sisters and say, no more.  Tomorrow is the time to say we as Indian people have had enough of the corruption, the abuse and oppression.  Tomorrow is the time to say you cannot ignore us any longer.  Tomorrow is the time to say that although we are quiet people we are survivors and we are fighters.  Tomorrow is the time to stand together and say enough is enough.  We want our sovereignty honored and we want all those who supposedly have our best interests at heart to do what they are legally and by election are required to do.

Let’s show our leadership that we can come together because believe me they never ever thought it would happen.

I am praying you are there and we will all stand together for the rights of Indian peoples.

Yakoke,

CW

Is It Enough?

Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

The time for the Idle No More rally is almost upon us and not only am I excited to see our people come together for all indian people but I am excited that this event is taking place in Chahta country.  To see Chahta people coming together to dance and sing warms this indian’s heart.  Remember we meet in peace and if they choose to disperse us then we disperse in peace.  I look forward to meeting new Chahta family members and if you see me be sure and give me your two cents on topics concerning indian country.

Now to the topic at hand.  I have been told that our government leadership is taking a more pro Chahta stance.  They are demanding the recruitment and hiring of more native people.  They have offered positions elsewhere in the nation when a Chahta is obviously in the wrong position instead of firing (one example of this, if you know of more let me know) the Chahta employee.  I applaud this effort because that means your voice is being heard and maybe just maybe our administration is remembering they cannot administer without the will and vote of the Chahta people.

It’s not enough.

That’s right, you read me.  It’s not enough.  Until we have a CERO that reports directly to Chief and Council the majority of Chahta employees still have nowhere to go in the face of untruths and oppression.  To cherry pick one employee and treat them with respect is good for one employee not for the Chahta people as a whole.  I know in my situation the unethical treatment went all the way to the Executive Director.  With lies and harassment they smeared my name but it no longer is about me and hasn’t been for almost a year now.

It’s a larger picture my Chahta family.  If we force their hand, if we embrace the voting power that is ours we can change this anti-Chahta government for our children and their children.  The Chief used to talk vaguely about a 100 year vision.  I was on a project and I emailed his office to get the information for the 100 year vision, his nahullo gatekeeper told me that was just something he touched on now and then and nothing was really written down.  A few months ago I saw in the Chief’s letter to the people posted in the propaganda sheet (Biskinik) where he elaborated on the 100 year vision.  I had to laugh because I had written those words line per line, he had given me permission to write my own 100 year vision all those months ago.  I hope you will read those thoughts in your Biskinik because they come from my heart and no one else’s.

Our true 100 year vision is for our Chahta descendents.  I see a government run for and by Chahta leaders.  I see a workforce that if abused and beaten down can go directly to our own CERO and find relief.  I see contractors who actually have to bid for work with the CNO and who are also given indian preference.  I see a walk through headquarter halls and every desk filled with Chahta workers who are being educated and prepared to be productive within the CNO for years to come.  I see a Cultural Preservation District Chief.  I see a CERO District Chief and I see an Enterprises District Chief.  I see term limits and transparency concerning all funds moving in and out of the CNO.  I see villages for a our children and communities for our elderly.  I see more houses being built for young families and I see the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma as leaders in Indian Country.  So you see it’s not enough to tell one employee, okay you can work somewhere else – we won’t fire you.  It’s just not enough, it’s like putting a band-aid on a severed leg.

Brothers and Sisters while you spend these next couple of days making signs be sure and reserve one for CERO (Choctaw Employee Rights Organization) which is not only for Chahta employees but for all Chahta wanting to work and make their lives within the borders of the Choctaw Nation.  We not only stand in support of Chief Spence this Saturday but we demand our rights concerning the ability to vote, to work and to prosper in our own community.

One final word The Muskogee Creek Nation Chief and 2nd Chief stood with their people during the IDLE No More rally in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.  You know why?  Because they still feel indian in their heart.  Our leaders see themselves as heads of a billion dollar corporation and their heart is no longer red but white.

Chi Pisa La Chike,

CW

 

Falling Down

Good Afternoon Brothers & Sisters,

I was telling my sons to get ready for the Idle No More gathering at the Durant Event Center parking lot.  I was saying mark your calendars for 7pm and let’s go stand for all Indian people.  My oldest son was good my youngest son, who is 16 years old ask me the question, “Why, that’s not our tribe”.

WHEW!  I looked at this boy about to become a man.  This boy that I love and I realized that he does not know our people.  That can sometimes happen in divorce especially if you have divorced a non-Indian.  It was my fault.  Even after all of these essays I had neglected to tell my own flesh and blood what it means to be Chahta and what it means to be Indian.

I told him, “our own tribe squeezes out Chahta people from working and running their own government because the nahullo’s smell money.  So many of our people have been fired and abused while working for our tribe that almost every family living within the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma borders have one or MORE stories”, his eyes got big because he knew he opened up a box.

“Your own great grandparents (who have long since passed) were swindled out of allotment oil money and their children were almost forced to go to a boarding school.  They chose to not teach their children the language of the Chahta for fear they would not assimilate and face what they had faced growing up.”

okay, I’ll go

“No wait it’s my fault you have lost your since of being indian.  We go to this protest to stand up for what is right.  This chief Teresa Spence is refusing solid food because she had no other choice because of the atrocities happening in her people’s community.  Broken treaties and a lack of respect for her people.  We go there so our own Chief might see that we as Chahta people are sick and tired of being smashed and broken in our own enterprises.  Maybe if he sees us dancing and coming together to support Indian Country injustices he will finally give us a Chahta Employee Rights Organizaiton so no other Chahta person has to hear, you won’t get my job”!

Okay, okay, I said I would go.

“One last thing.  You are among the few with enough Chahta blood in your veins to someday be Chief of our tribe.  Don’t take that lightly because that number dwindles everyday and we need Chahta’s who will put our people and their future generations above all else.  Above greed and lust.  Above selfish thoughts and ignorant pursuits”.

BAM!  I could be Chief?

“Only if we can somehow wrestle our nation from the czarist regime controlling it now”.

So you see brothers and sisters I was not doing what I should have been doing his whole life.  I should have made it to where to be anything but Chahta would seem foreign to him instead of the other way around.  I fell down on the job but it’s not too late.  My son will be at the gathering, we are going as a family to support our larger family.  We cannot fall down on this job.  This is a pivotal moment in our history.  This gathering represents a turning point for not only all indians but for the Chahta people as well.  My people, my family, gather your grandparents, your cousins, your sisters and brothers and dance with us.  I pray to see you there.

Chi Pisa La Chike,

CW

IDLE NO MORE – Durant, Oklahoma January 26, 2013- Event Ctr Parking Lot 7PM

Good morning Sisters & Brothers,

It’s finally raining and you can almost feel the earth sigh in relief.  As indian, indigenous people we share a brotherhood/sisterhood with other tribes.  Often I hear that we are “earth” people divided only by our different tribal affiliations.

Our own Yannash Ushi Scott has brought the spirit of the “Idle No More” movement home to our Chahta people.  He is as we speak using his own almost limitless passion for his people to organize in support of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence in her fight against the treatment of her people by the Canadian government.  Please see more of this story at:  http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1305420–why-idle-no-more-is-gaining-strength-and-why-all-canadians-should-care.

In very simplistic terms Chief Spence in the wake of disregarded treaties, a horrible underfunded native school system and even the murders and disappearances of close to 600 native women in Canada did the only thing she hadn’t tried, she quit eating.  Since December 11, 2012 Chief Spence has survived on lemon water, fish broth and medicinal teas to ward off sickness.  http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1311620–q-a-on-attawapiskat-chief-theresa-spence-hunger-strike-how-s-her-health-what-is-she-eating-how-much-weight-has-she-lost

How can we as Chahta people not support this Chief in her efforts to have treaties honored and have her people treated with dignity?  So Yannash, our warrior of Chahta anumpa, has rallied all Chahta’s, not just CVB members, in support of the rights of ALL indigenous people across the world.

Our own CVB Executive Council member and recipient of the Oklahoma Human Rights Award in 1987 Ben Carnes has this message for our own Chahta people, “”The Idle No More Movement is about sovereignty, treaties and the grass-roots movements to change the lives of our indian people.  Now we need to bring the spirit of the movement to our own local indian communities”.  Ben is right and he echoes sentiment felt around the world concerning the “Idle No More Movement”.  We as indian people of the 21st century can no longer accept the treatment we have received for the past few hundred years.  It’s time to stop it and it’s time the powers that be see the kind of support a movement like this can garner both abroad and in our own backyard.

It’s a matter of embracing your rights as U.S. citizens and as Chahta people. The first amendment to the United States Constitution explicitly provides for “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.  Our own Choctaw Constitution provides in Article 4, Section 4, “The members shall have the right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together for their common good, and to apply to those vested with powers of government for redress of grievances or other purposes by address or remonstrance.”

No law breaking, no violence is advocated so we will have to see if the CNO is ready to break out the armoured vehicle or grant to their citizens the right to peaceful assembly.  Saturday, January 26th at 7pm we will meet in the parking lot of the CNO event center.  Please bring your hand drums, shawls and traditional regalia.  Dress warm and come in the spirit of peace.  I would also like to add bring your cell phones and if we are met with resistance each and every one of us can video what happens and post it for the world to see.

Of course I cannot write a message like this one without saying this protest is totally supported by the Choctaw Voting Block political party because at the heart of our organization is the welfare and true empowerment of the Chahta people.  It is time to wake from our slumber and take back our nation.  I hope to see you there.

Chi pisa la chike!

Choctaw Wright

Ostracized from the Community Center

Halito Brothers & Sisters,

A chim achukma! Am achukma.  Actually I am not well I am saddened and sickened by a story told to me only in the last few hours.

Who are we?  I know who I am.  I am a Chahta ohoyo who saw the way Chahta were treated and decided to raise a stink.  I know who we are.  We are Chahta people and respecting our elders is ingrained into our psyche’s.  The nahullos, yes I know who they are as well.  They have scorned us for hundreds of years but as soon as the farm land, oil and gaming revenue came to us flowing like a river they sneak in amongst us so they can be sure to get their fair share.  Except their definition of “fair” is far from what we would call fair.  But some of us are content to sing our songs, play our stickball, draw our checks and hope for the best.  I know because I was one of them.  If I prayed and hoped for the best it would all be okay.  We would get the respect we so deserve and our little sovereign dependent nation would continue to thrive.  My blinders were yanked off and it was not a pleasant experience.  My anger has turned to resolve and those who share in this need to make change are quietly coming together.

Back to tonight’s story of disdain.  One of our elder Chahta ohoyo’s wanted to sing Chahta songs at the community center.  This did not sit well with the representative (the representative is kind of like a class president in a high school – just thought I would clear that up) and the elder was told she could not sing Chahta songs.  I believe her words were “no one wants to hear that”.  From what I was told others not only wanted to hear it they wanted to participate.  Those that could participate wanted to sing.  The rep was thin blood but she was by her CDIB a member of the Choctaw tribe.  Our elder said, “If I want to sing a Chahta song I will sing it” and began to sing and the thin blood shoved her seriously hurting her jaw.  The tribal police were called and the rep was taken away and charged with assault.  So you say, good that’s how it should have went.  Just wait…unfortunately there is more.  Then council member JAMES FRAZIER finds our hurt elder and gives her a letter explaining why she is barred from ever going to the community center again.  He said she was causing trouble.

So our little elderly Chahta ohoyo was banned from the CHOCTAW community center for singing Chahta songs.  I have to invoke my smart arse button and say, was this at a Little Dixie Community Center?  Because I thought this was at a Choctaw community center?  Why did councilman Frazier decide to step in on an elder fight, yet can’t possibly get involved with the hiring and firing of Chahta employees?  AND what pray tell is next banning all Chahta citizens from the hallways and waterways of the CNO empire?  Did councilman Frazier investigate?  Did he go to the center and talk to each and every Chahta citizen there before he banned her for life?

I discussed this with one of our absentee voters and she said all Chahta’s should just boycott every program, every handout given by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.  She was a little angry – Let’s say we, as Chahta people, did just that we withdrew our participation from anything to do with the government of the CNO.  Let ’em have it.  Well we are still card-carrying members and they would use our individual sovereignty as Chahta tribal members to keep the CNO going.  All the nahollo’s would still get paid, and our community centers would be open to everyone and the CNO would boast about having close to a quarter million members – whether we boycotted or not.

Our nation is infiltrated by non Chahta people and they are in there like burrowed ticks.  First of all, who is willing to run against James Frazier before he bars all Chahta’s from the community center?  Anyone brave enough to try to make a change?  And believe me I get it.  You could potentially face an ostracizing of your own but maybe you won’t.  Perry Thompson in his run against Winship was not supported by the CNO leaders.  Winship had the support and the funds and yet he lost.  Tony Messenger was not supported by the Chief’s office yet he won (oh by the way Tony the people of your district are wondering why you don’t live in the community – just saying).

Men and women of the Chahta Nation we have GOT to make this move.  The only other way we will get our nation back is if Texas passes gaming legislation and we become poor.  Then the greedy and hungry for power will go elsewhere and what will we be left with?  Same as before – each other.

Yakoke am akana,

CW

 

 

The Awakening

Good morning Sisters and Brothers,

A colleague of mine was enjoying supper at a casino that wasn’t part of the CNO casinos.  He is, however, a full blood Chahta.  He heard loud yelling and was surprised to see what looked to be a nahullo supervisor yelling at two native workers.  What, you may ask, were these natives doing?  Smoking, standing around talking or perhaps being rude to customers?  No, one was busing tables and the other was gathering what looked to be trash.  The supervisor was yelling at them for not working fast enough.  He was degrading them in front of the restaurant patrons.  Did they respond with anger?  No they acknowledged his rant with barely above a whisper reply.  They put their heads down and continued to work.  My colleague felt the urge to back the ole boy up against the wall but instead paid for his mostly uneaten meal and left.  He said it reminded him of our own people and not in a good way.

So we continue to chant CERO, CERO, CERO.  Would a Choctaw Employee Rights Organization put an end to all abuse?  No not without reporting the abuse, giving statements concerning treatment and separation from the Human Resources office.  Why the separation?  Well you have an Executive Director with an ego too large to concede that she doesn’t know the first thing about TRIBAL human resources and nor does she care to.  You see in the corporate world outside of Indian Country it is all about diversity and inclusion which sounds only right.  However, in Indian Country it’s about tribal preference and opportunity for tribal members most of whom live in the poorest parts of the United States.

Attorney Richard McGee author of the book “A Guide to Tribal Employment” is one of the most distinguished experts in the field of tribal human resources.  Having attended one of his two day seminars this is what I came away with, a tribe should strive to meet or EXCEED federal government EEOC regulations.  I’ll give you an example.  Federal law says you cannot discriminate on the bases of a handicap or you could get into a potential lawsuit that could cost a business or government entity lots of money.  Now a federally recognized tribe can choose to have a handicap policy or not but if they choose to then they should uphold those standards even better than the federal government upholds their handicap law.  So, lets say that the CNO hangs a poster about equal opportunity for handicapped persons but does not have their own policy in place.  Well now they are bound by the federal law governing handicap workers because they have given the impression, by use of the poster, that they follow federal handicap worker legislation.  Before I left the CNO this particular ED turned away from the tribal human resources certifying organization and chose to, at great expense, use other sources of certification common in the corporate world.

I know you caught that – she turned away from tribal laws and regulations to embrace corporate laws and regulations that largely don’t apply to tribes.  In effect not only risking our sovereign status but the sovereign status of all tribes because any tribe that doesn’t protect the sovereign rights granted to them by the US government risks setting PRECEDENCE.  A precedence that could be used in federal courts against all amercian indian tribes.  Don’t you think our highest leaders know this as well?  They do but the concern has turned away from empowerment of our Chahta people to running a corporation, just ask Gary Batton and he will tell you.

So why would we trust the CNO HR Executive Director with our most precious indian preference when she has already chosen corporate america?  Would this be the person who would end the tyranny and humiliation of the Chahta people, the Chahta worker?  She and Batton have already told our council members that the hiring and firing of Chahta employees is not a part of their job description.  Who gives this nahullo so much power?  Gary Batton.  She follows his directives.

Our people continue to be treated with contempt and it’s just so difficult to understand why our leaders don’t do something about it.

 

Yakoke,

CW