Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Just to lighten things up a little, I've included the picture of the Sun made by noted West Coast Artist Calvin Hunt at the bottom. He is Kwakwaka'wakw The same First Nation's Tribe as my sons. In their genealogy the intersection between the Super Natural and human is foretold through the culture of practice. The ancestors were killed for practicing their spiritual and or traditional culture. It isn't more obvious then it is today that you can see the survivors of genocide and it isn't more pronounced then it is in this artform. The supernatural element of the universe is a part of us. A physical object such as this can represent culture, especially when it tells a story. Our songs, languages & dances are not folklore! We don't keep records locked away in repository. Our history is still living! It's living through us in everything that you see. We're just the vessel that the creator uses to express the ideals of the universe. It's Time Immemorial, Manifest Destiny, Despot Oppression. These things dictate our Warrior Spirit and yes, many of our people have died because of it, but we're still here. You don't see me talk about this particular subject a lot because it's not mine. Culture is something your born with and because some folks have died or had it taken away from them, the effort to beat it out of them and the injuries resulting in death, we as the people who hold that history don't talk about it for respect of our ancestors. It happened to them. It's their experience! But, because it's still happening right up until today (MMIWP) we've taken the opportunity to realize there is healing in discussing the part of our history which we don't speak. It's an effort to move forward, so I would take precaution in finding understanding. I know it's the human thing to do, but if we, ourselves, don't even mention it out of respect & dignity of the victims, it might be something that isn't taken lightly, especially outside of the sacred circle. Words have meaning, spelling is just that around the same time or a little before the Boarding Schools, American History had women who possessed knowledge of reading & writing burned for just about the same reason our ancestors were attacked. Oppressors oppress through means of dismissing others. It happens gradually at first, but then ultimately ends in the way I am trying to delicately describe except it's very violent, resulting in murder. That sort of discussion is to be had with people known to be able to physically, emotionally, but most of all Spiritually fit to hold the discussion. You don't invite evil into your mind and heart out of convenience sake. Our lives are not at your disposal because you just all of a sudden decided to care what happens to us. Our lives belong to the creator and we answer to him or her, whatever gender you believe, but we know it's not a person. It's many things and that's why we were victimized for not adhering to a larger conformity that was being forced upon us. I listen to non-natives talk. They often don't understand how disrespectful they sound assuming all life isn't valuable. They don't even acknowledge the life in natural things in this world. That's how backwards and consequential the thought process can be. It's not a "light," discussion topic. Unless you are willing to admit how that trait lives in your mind and or heart to this day, you do not have the right to talk about it. That is the position I and many others which share the same belief hold. It wasn't your ancestors that died. It was ours! Were still practicing the same way of life from seven or even eight generations ago! For this we suffer. No other reason other then the fact that we won't conform and bend to a ruler of foreign authority. No Capitalism, patriarchy, nihilism or cynicism can break a ten thousand year old sacred hoop of life. Every time were told were not from here, we just shrug because it's not up to a foreigner to decide our existence. You cannot violently beat & murder other races into submission. We're still here and we will continue to be here until were called back home. Recently, I had a non-native tell me how in every obligatory sense of the word ironic it was for me to occupy "Their," property. In my mind, I understood what they meant, but I was standing on my own ancestral ground. That's how backwards people's mind & thoughts are. They really believe they own the grass or the wind. It is why I use the picture of the sun in this article. The saying is "Nothing can hide from the sun," or "No lie is hidden." If your entire belief system is based on untruth, it's going to be a very difficult existence. The classification of race is a made up thing. We don't believe in a "Blood Quantum." I believe the earth rotates this way and the stars are moving that way. If the creator had meant for me to believe something else, I'd believe it, but since time immemorial it's always been the same. That is truth. It is true that life isn't easy for anyone. It is true that we are born and we will die. These things are natural and they are a part of something "Bigger," than ourselves. It's undeniable, it's obvious. Although, I'm typing on an electronic keyboard attached to a digitally electronic device to communicate, I'm not doing anything different then my ancestors. I'm telling the same story and it won't change just because I live in a post industrial revolutionized world or a technologically advanced society. Truth is truth. When I look inward into my own heart & mind, I see clear, but out here where everything is outside of myself, my eye's can hardly believe what they're seeing and my ears cannot understand what I am hearing. Everyday, someone is talking about something they have no idea what it is they're talking about, but they're talking like it's the truth. People are listening and I just think to myself, Ignorance is bliss." It's then that I realize, it's not so much ignorance, but intelligence or lack of. Education comes in many forms. There isn't just one way to learn. There are several means to communicate. Blind people learn. Deaf people learn. People who cannot talk or walk learn. In fact, nearly every infant born starts out with the same functioning ability to learn. It's a natural thing. There are exceptions I'll admit, but in general everyone is the same. It's what happens along the way that impacts each and everyone's ability to learn. So then, why do people with working eyes say they don't see things the same way or hear the same thing? It's because they become influenced by someone else telling them what they're seeing isn't true or hearing. Then they convince them that something else is true which isn't usually correct, but it benefits the person who is working at influencing another person. I believe that's why we rely on our own language of communication that has been passed down from one generation to the next because we do this in an effort to provide our understanding of things. We support one another in that we share the same beliefs. It sustains us and guides us in ways of understanding everything around us. That was the threat that foreign invaders interpreted that they needed to take away from us. They're still trying to do it today by watching our ceremonies and trying to learn our practices, so that they can distort and contort them to mean something else. Our history belongs to us and this earth. Today we see that by doing things to the earth, we're suffering. Not just us but everyone on this earth is suffering because of it. That is when "Truth," becomes reality. That is why we've never changed from our belief system or tried to adopt foreign influences into our life. That's real. It's what sustains our survival. We don't go out of our way to tell other cultures and ethnicity groups to change. We just watch and learn from them. It's like a mythical figure in our legends and our cultural teaching that we learn "What not to do," by observing it. All the violence, all the death, all the hate is not new to us. We've observed it. Our ancestors experienced it. Our prophets foretold it. As for myself, I believe it and it's my truth. So for a person who wants to hold a discussion about it without ever experiencing it, I feel like it's unoriginal. You don't have to listen to me because I'm just a person, but my eyes work and I do on occasion hear perfectly fine. It's just that I'm selective with the things I believe, I want natural order. The creator has provided everything we need, as people. Did God not say, "Let there be light?" Our creation stories are the same. Does the earth, the moon and the stars still hold the same position they've held for thousands if not millions of years? So then, how can a single invention of man erase all of that? Let me rephrase it because man has invented something that can erase all of human life, but can it move the sun or the stars? The answer is no. Debate it a hundred times over and the answer is still no. So we are not powerful as God or the creator of everything. We are just a tiny speck of dust compared to everything around us. That's the truth. The problem is that somewhere, someone is trying to convince someone else by way of means of influence that black is not a color, it's the absence of light which is true, but not correct. Black is not a color, it's every color. Just like darkness isn't the absence of light. It's every color with no Sun to show you the color. Empty isn't a state in space, it's the opposite of full. There's so many things in space you cannot count them all. It's just so big, it appears empty. It's what I meant when I say spelling and writing. Knowledge is perspective. If you have the correct perspective, you can acquire knowledge from the things you observe, but if you believe you already know everything there is to know about a place or a people, we'll then you cannot learn anything. That is why I started out by objecting to people outside the realm of understanding the problem of boarding school death, discussing it. It's the point I'm trying to make that you cannot understand something unless you put yourself in the right perspective. In this case, you have to understand that if you're not a victim or a survivor of the genocide or have same genealogy in common as someone who does, don't attempt to think you can take on this subject unless your willing to admit or accept the truth. The truth is the whole thing is barbaric and the people who justify the means and the end of the entire subject by claiming that they were facilitating assistance in any way, shape or form are straight out lying to themselves if they believe it. That's their business. I won't tell anyone what to believe, but if you think you're going to go outside and show me graves of little children under a clear blue sky and try to justify it, I will tell you to your face that's ignorance. From the get go, my people were lied to. They signed treaties and stopped fighting and still they were killed. It's the most deceptive atrocity known to man. I'm all about telling it like it is, but many people will say, "what about the Holocaust?" or "what about Slavery?" Yeah, I'll admit those are terrible to, but that didn't happen to me and my people. I can only talk about something I am directly affected by which I pointed out is still happening to this day. It's not in the past if it's still happening right now all over this continent. It can't be swept away if it's still possible that it will happen in the future. You can't look me in the face while were standing in the sun and tell me it's "Dark outside," because that isn't true. It might be dark, but it's not the absence of light, it's because you refuse to admit the truth. That is how were different and I have facts on my side without even bringing up diabetes, Heart disease, pollution, poverty and other avoidable circumstances that only exist existentially for my people. This country was founded on the Lie that Christopher Columbus thought he landed in India and it just got worse from there. We don't perpetuate or believe in these lies, we know and understand history. Tell me when you look around and see people who say things like, "Indians don't pay taxes," or, "they have Casinos," do you really believe that's a trade off for being hundreds of millions in numbers to hundreds of thousands? When we have numbers supporting the fact that our numbers are still dying at a rate of ten times the average person, do you still think it's because were all Alcoholic? IF you believe these things then I feel sorry for you because what a government and a country can do to the least of us, they can do to all of us. Wars never ended for us. Were still living it everyday, it's just hidden away from others with lies and admission "if," it is still happening, it doesn't effect you. I'll attempt to describe to you how it affects you or the one's you love, but I don't expect you to understand if it isn't happening to you or anyone you know. That's how reality works for most people. If it doesn't happen to you, it doesn't exist. Let me explain things this way, if a storm is happening on the East coast and you live on the West coast do you care? An intelligent answer is, "It depends." It depends if it's a strong storm. It depends on which way weather patterns are moving, but most importantly it depends on how much you know about weather. For the most part, storms don't usually move from east to west and that was the first point I'm trying to communicate about something obvious. Second, a storm is usually an isolated incident otherwise people refer to them, as "weather patterns." SO there you go! Something simple that seems obvious, but isn't really when you take the time to think about it. No one does that anymore. We live in an age where if you can't form an opinion in a minute or so then it's to long winded to be understood. Pardon the pun, but it is intentional. I'm describing the overall mindset of someone sitting there thinking, "I can discuss the atrocity in detail of another people and believe I can summarize it." I think, "Really, you can somehow imagine how horrific it must be to have your own child taken from you and being told that they are being educated, but instead they were murdered?" You can imagine that? I can't even imagine it and I'm apart of the people who were targeted. My people still to this day are suffering from it, but I should listen to you or someone else who it never happened to? When I first heard the words, "Generational Trauma," I wanted to reject the idea. I was like, no. I'm not accepting anything that makes or describes my people as weak. That was my pride that was rejecting it. The more I thought about it, the more questions I started asking. Someone explained to me that it's not like were talking 1800's some boarding schools were open in the 60's. I was taken back to memories of people my parents age and started thinking about some of the unexplainable fear and or distress I witnessed and how it affected my understanding about what people were going through. I realized my own confusion is a form of generational trauma, so then I wanted to know more about this. I wanted to know how it appeared to manifest itself everywhere and all at once. It is a bit unexplainable, but when you remove all influential aspects and opinions, the only explanation is quite heinous. Consider something simple like the story of Cain & Able, They both appease the lord, but the lord only favors one's sacrifice. What type of deity would show favor to one of its children, but not the other? It's a parable. Meaning, it's not a question, but a statement. It's a statement about nature. In the opening of human history, we see a violent murder of one brother on another. That is the legacy of religious teaching that eventually travels all the way down through time until it reaches my land and my people. I was raised in this knowledge. I know it. I've come to realize that as a vessel of communication, I must share these words to provide context. The context is that evil exists and we must choose to turn away from it. Well, with all the discussion I've lent to guide a reasonable person to accept reality as truth, I've come to be in the position of influencer. Remember what I've said about the subject. People use influence to make other people not see the truth or to at least disguise and or confuse others about their own concept. This is not my intention. If anything, I'd like to help people understand that an atrocity affects us all. When you’re a part of a group, you tend to sympathize with concerns of the group. Well, being human makes us all a part of a group that it doesn't matter what race or ethnicity, background, culture or belief system we share, were all human beings. These are the type ideas that my people believe that we have a responsibility to each other. Were responsible for those that cannot speak for themselves and the protection of the helpless. These are the same concepts mentioned in the bible and I believe it's because ancient knowledge is shared throughout history in a livable example through actions more then words. You see, my people never needed a bible to know right from wrong. Just like the bible, we have our own stories, myths and legends. Why would it be that an all powerful god would only pick one people and share with them the secrets of the universe? Again, any manufactured evidence a person can attempt to bring is littered with motivation of agenda, influence, but most of all dominant inherit ant traits of self preservation. That is what it really comes down to. People will say anything to re-enforce a belief system that they already possess. So when they encounter a whole civilized continent of other people, they declare, "these people are not human." Given that was over five hundred years ago, what's the excuse today? We've got wifi on the reservation. We have access to most of the modern utilities. We understand your language and culture or there lack of. So how can it be in the 21st century, We still fighting the battles of Columbus? Maybe, just maybe, none of the justifiable excuses stick or stuck to this day. Maybe they were just excuses to take our land and remove us from the face of the earth. You know, I probably wouldn't be so adamite if this were all settled history, but it's still happening today. My people are still being victimized today as not actually human. What other explanation is there? Some could sit and read these words and think "Manifesto," or some other type of "Wack-job," lecture, but if I weren't telling the truth, I'd be struggling to find examples to use to prove each and every point I'm trying to make. Sadly, I'm not struggling. There is plenty of evidence. That's what I'm trying to do here is present the circumstance and describe the actual situation that real people experience. When someone from outside of the experience speaks up and say something like, "Hey, we should really take a look at this," I encourage that but when they intend to devise a strategy to go ahead and form a group without including anyone that has first hand experience with the issue, I take issue with it. We have had the MMIWP Missing Murdered Indigenous Women or Person group come together which they did on their own. There is even a main person who started it in a particular location. The point is the statistics support the evidence that it's a problem to be addressed. What I'm doing is saying, "It's more than just that issue." I'm not trying to take anything away from it because it's the number one priority in Indian Country. I'm saying that, "when a person backs up and looks at the bigger picture," you can definitely find evidence that it's not just about at risk individuals, but a constant historical march at eradicating an entire race of people indigenous to this continent. I don't believe you can honestly argue with it. I don't believe anyone in their right mind would choose to argue the point, but in this country they just don't talk about it. People want to put us in the past and take the attitude of "Let's move forward." I think that's good, but how can you move forward if you don't acknowledge the wrong that you're trying to make right? Starting a dialog is good, but saying we don't want to focus on the bad and talk about the good isn't going to do anything. Especially if you have the "Bad," not voiced by the people experiencing it. '

I'm using the present tense of the word experience, meaning we're all still experiencing it. I look out into the world and I see this experience happening. I become confused by it because we have so much beauty in our land and it's in our people's culture & tradition. I think to myself, "How is it taken from us today?" We have all of this rich history and we are still living the way we've lived for thousands of years and yet you can hear the influences that have got us looking in the wrong direction. That is what I think when I see the bigger picture, but I also see something it seems no one ever talks about. I see a bright sun shining down upon us. I see miles and miles of beautiful land before me. I see oceans and rivers full of water life. I see incredible scenery everywhere I look and it’s then that I remember my place in all of this beauty. That's the answer for me. When I see the abundance of positive and good in the world there is no comparison. Sure, there is a lot of suffering everywhere, but it's very small in the comparison to beauty all around us. I will include a small note from a family member asking for support in receiving justice for her sister. This was a beautiful lady whose life was taken in her own home with video surveillance capturing the entire ordeal. To me that speaks as loud as a voice could be possibly heard! Our family is asking for your support in our continued quest to have our Mother's case moved to Federal Court, where it legally should have been placed from the beginning. This movement is one we have requested since August of 2019. We have met with Federal Attorneys, and have their attention. But, so far, have not had a response to our request. My neice, Mya, recorded our testimony that we delivered to the MMIW/P Commission for Secretary of Interior Debra Haaland in Billings, MT last month. We will be sending this to the US Attorney, to Deb Haaland, and the director of the Department of Justice from WA DC. My neice, Sarah’s testimony brought the director of the Department of Justice our table because he was so moved by her speaking. Our goal is to boost it before sending to the Feds so they can see we have community support and traction. Please “like” and “comment” on the YouTube video to boost it. That way when it arrives to the Feds they see many people/family/loved ones are also hurt by the lack of response. Thank you for your support. Please feel free to share. Our love & thanks, The Teo Family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up_Gdh8U0TM