REDSKINS? It's Entertainment!!

Hangisi Güzel on a covered wagon

Dump the Redskins Movement 

I got a phone call from a good friend and fellow Rotarian who was looking to give away two tickets to the football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington team. I am not a sports fan meaning I like sports, but cannot suffer through watching sports on television, in particular football. It is such a violent sport from the perspective of the fans. I don't trust the union between competition, white men, and beer which is served at football games. I never know when, or if fans will break out into a rage placing my wife in danger. That's why I don't go to football games. But, this one was special. My wife, a life long Dallas fan, had never seen them live in all the years she has lived in D.C.and my son assured me there would be no such threat.   

"Why did God create white men and beer and put them together?" I expressed to the Black lady seated next to me at the game while racial tension and team rivalry was showing itself in the rows near us. Yes, I went to the game. When I got off the phone with Guy I was thinking about combinations of family members who'd like to see the game, but my wife was firm. We were going to the game, and that was that! 

Just before we left for the game my phone rang. An elder, a Native elder was on the other end asking me if I was participating in the protest march against the Washington team? I chuckled. "No. I'll be there at the game myself with Jan." Well, that was a short conversation, and it wasn't the only conversation that day about the team. In the middle of the third quarter the Black lady to the left of me in a conspirator's tone of voice complained. 

"You know there are people outside the stadium protesting the name of the Redskins. Ain't that some shit? We got bigger problems. They killing our young men in Ferguson, and all over the country. We got bigger problems than a name! What d'ya think 'bout dat?" 

I had not planned to discuss any serious issue at this game. I thought about answering. I also thought about the cow farm that used to be here before the stadium, and the serene peace the land held for decades before Jack Kent Cooke, the former redneck owner of the team, purchased the land and leveled the surrounding forest digging up the earth for the team. I remember ten acres of the land outside of the stadium grounds where stands a plantation home of the slave owners who owned vast acreage that includes where the stadium is and miles beyond on Brightseat Road in Landover, Maryland now owned by Jericho Baptist Church. Today the once noble house is insignificant against the visual backdrop of an old folks home and parking lots. The slave church with its small grave site not far from the plantation house sitting on Central Avenue came to mind because of its insistence on remaining a testament of a harsh past in a tiny pastoral setting facing a busy avenue. 

I thought of the mystical things I experienced on that old slaver's land miles away when walking on a dark road leading to our cars after a Commodores concert at the Capital Center. It was very dark and the night air felt different as if we (my buddies and I) were on the other side of air and moisture. After a long walk in the dark we walked right out of the woods to our cars parked on the side of the highway a couple miles away. We were amazed thinking about the road which seemed to be lined with spirits watching us. We began wondering why we didn't see this more direct route to the stadium when we'd parked our cars. When we all turned back to see where we'd come from there was no road; only the dark solemn forest looking down upon us.  

The spirits of the tribes who'd lived, prospered, raised families and died on this land always sound out to me in muted tones. At times a bony finger reaches out and touches my shoulder reminding me of their time on Earth, our Mother. I was also looking back into the long times ago Red skins, niggers and buffalo were commodities. So, talking about the protests outside of the stadium sank deep into my soul. 

I had an answer, but I didn't want to take away from her the joy of losing to the Dallas Cowboys so I said, I agreed with the protesters. She jerked back in astonishment. Expecting solidarity I gave her a simple commentary: "I understand the history of the name and what it means." 

That was all she could accept and take in at the moment. We had been trash talking and enjoying the immense energy of the stadium, and the endless up and down of emotions across the stadium. I enjoyed it all. I barely know the rules of the game, but it was fun digging the joy the crowd feels a game. Everyone, Cowboy fans or not were enjoying the game until it became evident the prophecies of the Native Elders was coming to pass again and the DC football fans began to leave the stadium early. 

That was my contribution to the protest. Being one's authentic self in every social setting speaks strong to the integrity of one's beliefs and assertions into the complex web spun by the need for expansion into a world meant for more than one group to prosper in as a dominant force to be reckoned with. As an Native man and an African man it felt good in the soul commitment to be myself in the proverbial belly of the beast!

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 
Creek/African/Crow
1.04.14

Washington Redskin cheerleader by Zuma 

flag t-shirt worn by Kelly Brook

POSTPONEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT !!!!

July 12, 2014
To whom it may concern:


There is a long tradition amongst the many tribes of North America respecting the authority of tribal councils, and the power of a person's vision. A vision was born in Jay Winter Night Wolf that led from receiving the dream, to learning how and where to lay the vision from one of our Grandmothers, to the planning and the practical work involved in the manifestation of The First Gathering of the National Congress of the Black American Indians and “All Our Relations”!

In the last of the month of June 2014 the tribal council that was formed to make ready the First Gathering of the National Congress of the Black American Indians and “All Our Relations” made a decision and agreed to postpone the July 19, 2014 gathering, as advertised. We were not structurally ready, in the short time frame imposed by He Who Carried The Vision, to give an excellent gathering for the People.

I sit on that tribal council. We voted. I voted. Our chief had the last word.


Gregory E. Woods, Tribal Council member
Juliette Porter, Tribal Council member

The 4th image: dictatorial patriotism

The fourth of July is one thing to an American citizen from the Midwest, and the deep South, another thing to an Indian, and another to the descendants of ex-slaves. It is another thing for the risk takers from other countries who ventured to our shores to make their homes and build their families upon Turtle Island. Freedom pulled them to these shores. Their ideas of freedom are variants from the original concepts of this country's founding fathers, who could not fathom women influencing policy, or dictating yea, or nay about war, as the Iroquois practiced.

We are living in an interesting time when the backlash of our foreign policies, and the legacies of the historical precepts that shaped American conquests are returning home to roost in our proverbial approach to reconciliation that doesn't work, and further divides people. The notions of freedom are increasingly becoming diatribes, and descendants from a paranoia, a fear that is acting against the freedoms hard won over the centuries.

Yesterday, Jay Winter Nightwolf was blocked from entering the studios of the Pacifica radio station (WPFW 89.3 FM) in Washington DC by the General Manager, John Hughes (202.573.0262) in a successful effort to prevent him from being the voice for Native America. His intended show was to focus on the Native perspectives on American independence. This is part of an ongoing internal battle within the station that is becoming more public each week as the established voices for the many communities unique to the Washington DC area are fighting against the stifling silence gentrification is forcing upon communities and people of color across the city. It is a struggle. What isn't a struggle? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7.6.13

VirtuaGirl

July 4, 2013

Dominick C.

BLOOD, LOVE & WISDOM

WISDOM BLOOD

Brother Nightwolf. You said something that just clicked with me.


One of the prophecies predicts that the waters would turn red. The Blood of the mother is within her veins and she is bleeding, oil, liquid blood money. I have watched for the signs of the wisdom keepers and now I know that it is time to go to higher grounds, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Now's the time to lift the veil and use our minds to create change. All things are created first through our thoughts. Thoughts are living things, and when your minds and spirits come together, power becomes divine. I can now see, the next step I need to take.

Thank You! -Donna Weinheimer (June 2, 2010)

"The major point of human existence is to complete love. God as a spiritual vertical being cannot occupy spherical love alone. The appearance of man and woman usher the realm of horizontal love in the physical realm. Vertical and horizontal together create the multidimensional experience to fulfill love.

There are mysteries, yet reality shows that God lost His beloved in the onset of human history. Love was to have God alone as the vertical subject. Angelic and human violation of divine intention bore the fruit of arrogant love that uses others for self-sake.

Marriage can vibrate at the frequency of divine rapture when centered on the divine = natural = your joy is my indulgence, causing the Lord to say where in the hell have you been? My son, my daughter I love you, thank you for honoring my beautiful love.

When man and woman master the blueprint of original love, each couple can quote James Brown,

"so nice, dat dat, so nice, I got you dat dat dat dat dat dat dat dat dat....YEAHHHHHHHH"

Adruma Victoria (December 30, 2010)

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Grandfather says by * Tashunka Witko * [HQ]

Grandfather says this: “In life there is sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing, hunger as well as plenty, bad as well as good. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you…that life is a journey sometimes walked in light and sometimes in shadow.” Grandfather says this...

Native American activist Jay Winter Nightwolf

Many tribes owe the Sioux nation debts. It won't ease the extreme poverty, the cultural alienation of their young, or abate the alcoholism ravaging their nation. It won't wipe from anyone's memory, nor will their gang problem go away. But many tribes, thousands of white people seeking to bringing healing to themselves owe the Sioux nation a debt. Somehow despite the relentless campaigns of Americans, and the might of their armies, the duplicity of their missionaries, and the laws written to protect whites interests in land grabbing the Sioux somehow managed to preserve their traditions, and ceremonies. Their language stayed in tact, and despite the laws against us Native folk practicing our religion the Sioux nation surfaced in the 1960's sharing their’ medicines', their Sundance ceremony, the Pipe, and their story-power with the world. They allowed the nations, like the Piscataway whom the whites stripped of identity, and custom, to share the Lakota ways of the Sundance, and their Chanupa ceremonies, and blessed them allowing them to practice these ways.

Jay Winter Nightwolf & grandson Alex

Many people connect with the Indian ways because of this turn of events. Because white anthropologists (love 'em or hate 'em) recorded so much of Sioux life, and because the Sioux fought so hard against the Americans somewhere within the American thought-patterns poverty was allowed to crush this nation into the dirt. Their nobility is often sung about, and held high as an example of the noble Red Man, but the abject poverty, if you ever visit Pine Ridge, for example, will crush your good will. There are people like public radio personality, and activist, Jay Winter Nightwolf, Eastern Band Cherokee, Shoshone, who work to provide the Sioux nation with food, heat, and clothes every winter. It is colder than a witch’s tit in the Dakotas, and people starve and don’t make it through the winter. Many drive to the edge of town to buy liquor from a store a few dozen feet from the border with food money for their families!

There is an enormous cultural and spiritual debt to be paid the Sioux. But they need food, heat, education, housing like so many other nations. They need the treaty money the US government holds from them, and uses as they see fit. These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods, “Dawn Wolf”, Keeper of Stories.

http://www.facebook.com/jwnightwolf

Native teaching from Indigenouz Fellowzhip

BLOOD

Brother Nightwolf. You said something that just clicked with me.




One of the prophecies predicts that the waters would turn red. The Blood of the mother is within her veins and she is bleeding, oil, liquid blood money. I have watched for the signs of the wisdom keepers and now I know that it is time to go to higher grounds, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Now's the time to lift the viel and use our minds to create change. All things are created first through our thoughts. Thoughts are living things, and when your minds and spirits come together, power becomes divine. I can now see the next step I need to take.


Thank You! -Donna Weinheimer (June 2, 2010)

PRINCIPAL CHIEF WILMA MANKILLER, TSALAGI

Just received word that Chief Wilma Mankiller is at the end of her journey here on "Grandmother Earth". Gather your sacred belongings and tobacco and whatever you have to prayer for Wilma in her journey as well as those that she will leave behind. Wilma is a true friend, warrior and leader. - Jay Winter Nightwolf

"Our way is to get up every day with a thankful, prayerful attitude," she said. "That way, obstacles are more like challenges. You figure out how to get around - over or under them - but they don't get in your way." Chief Wilma Mankiller

art expression of gratitude by Native American artists Anjanette Elk

"Expressing gratitude with our waking breath each morning, for the gift of life, the opportunity to grow and gain wisdom will benefit each of us individually, and will collectively advance human consciouness. I am sure her spirit lives on in everyone who was honoured by her friendship and counsel. Thank you for this." - Yairi Sanomaa

EUROPE WALKED OVER TURTLE ISLAND

"When the first Europeans arrived, Columbus and his crew, he came and he called us Indians, because of the obvious reasons, he thought he was lost in India. But what did we call ourselves before Columbus came? That's the question so often asked. And the thing is in every single tribe, even today, when you translate the world that we each had for ourselves, without knowledge of each other, if was always something that translated to basically the same thing. In our language it's Ninuog, or the People, the human beings. That's what we called ourselves. So when the Pilgrims arrived here, we knew who we were, but we didn't know who they were. So we called them Awaunageesuck or, the strangers, because they were the ones who were alien, they were the ones that we didn't know, but we knew each other. And we were the human beings." - Tall Oak, Narragansett

photo of Native Americans - Jay Winter Nightwolf & grandson Alex

ELDERS, ANCESTORS, DEATH

"Hey My Brother Carlos. I understand about the old ones. They are special and deserve whatever we can do for them. It won't be long before I will be an old one as well and only that my relatives will come and see about me. In my Tsalagi culture I am an elder. I won't stop fighting until "Great Spirit" calls me to come back across the "Milky Way" to home again." - Jay Winter Nightwolf

Pacifica Radio

http://www.wpfw.org/

Fridays

7:00 to 8:00 PM

WPFW 89.3 FM

JAY WINTER NIGHTWOLF IN SERVICE FOR THE "PEOPLE"

Grandfather says by * Tashunka Witko * [HQ]

Grandfather says this: “In life there is sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing, hunger as well as plenty, bad as well as good. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you…that life is a journey sometimes walked in light and sometimes in shadow.” Grandfather says this...

"Many tribes owe the Sioux nation debts. It won't ease the extreme poverty, the cultural alienation of their young, or abate the alcoholism ravaging their nation. It won't wipe from anyone's memory, nor will their gang problem go away. But many tribes, thousands of white people seeking to bringing healing to themselves owe the Sioux nation a debt. Somehow despite the relentless campaigns of Americans, and the might of their armies, the duplicity of their missionaries, and the laws written to protect whites interests in land grabbing the Sioux somehow managed to preserve their traditions, and ceremonies. Their language stayed in tact, and despite the laws against us Native folk practicing our religion the Sioux nation surfaced in the 1960's sharing their’ medicines', their Sundance ceremony, the Pipe, and their story-power with the world. They allowed the nations, like the Piscataway whom the whites stripped of identity, and custom, to share the Lakota ways of the Sundance, and their Chanupa ceremonies, and blessed them allowing them to practice these ways.

Many people connect with the Indian ways because of this turn of events. Because white anthropologists (love 'em or hate 'em) recorded so much of Sioux life, and because the Sioux fought so hard against the Americans somewhere within the American thought-patterns poverty was allowed to crush this nation into the dirt. Their nobility is often sung about, and held high as an example of the noble Red Man, but the abject poverty, if you ever visit Pine Ridge, for example, will crush your good will. There are people like public radio personality, and activist, Jay Winter Nightwolf, Eastern Band Cherokee, Shoshone, who work to provide the Sioux nation with food, heat, and clothes every winter. It is colder than a witch’s tit in the Dakotas, and people starve and don’t make it through the winter. Many drive to the edge of town to buy liquor from a store a few dozen feet from the border with food money for their families!

There is an enormous cultural and spiritual debt to be paid the Sioux. But they need food, heat, education, housing like so many other nations. They need the treaty money the US government holds from them, and uses as they see fit. These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods, “Dawn Wolf”, Keeper of Stories.

JAY WINTER NIGHTWOLF on FACEBOOK   Jay Winter Nightwolf on the Taino people

Jay Winter Nightwolf & his grandson Alex

Alex the Early Years:Family Life