"Greed through the eyes of an Irishman"

I was very disgusted and angered today when I logged onto my facebook, I seen one of my friends sharing a link to a blog site called 'Indian country, Though the eyes of irishman' by a Mr. Mike Meuers. This man (Michael Meuers)might of finagled his way into the circles of those he's used to boast his deceitful career of exploiting the Ojibwe culture, but this contumelious, sacrilegious man is no friend to the Anishinaabeg. He blatantly undermines and belittles the real issues of my people's struggles we endure just so he can falsely romanticize any significance to his benefit. He constantly pontificates his views down upon the indian people in his pretentious manner. He is nothing more then a front-man for the DFL and their greedy intentions of exploiting the enterprise of Indian gaming. John 'Custer' McCarthey is unable to get his greedy hands on the Red Lake Casino business, being they are not a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, so hes implicated Mr. Meuers as his go to guy to manipulate the Red Lake peoples interest, which he is rather good at. Mr. Meuers has also duped some Ojibwe people into believing that his Ojibwe language signage he's taken up to put Ojibwe words in racist Bemidji businesses is solely meant to benefit racial harmony. All he is doing in reality is luring Ojibwe money back to business where they might of deterred Ojibwe patrons through obnoxious racism. Also, he's using our language to encourage tourism as well. Bemidji relying much of its funding on Ojibwe financial support and the tourism economy, so why not kill two birds with one stone eh Mr Meuers? Nicole Beaulieu and my mother being both language teachers have talked with other language instructors, and they have came to the conclusion Mr. Meuers' actions are very offensive due to the nature of his interests in exploiting our culture in a very racist city such as Bemidji. Yeah there's Ojibwe language in over 100 businesses in Bemidji, but there is not even a 100 Ojibwes working in those businesses. Where poverty and unemployment is rampant amongst the Ojibwe people that live there, I do not appreciate this irish man's perspectives and ideals victimizing my peoples interests here in Ojibwe country. I for one,' am not naive nor ignorant enough to be duped by this mans false bravado he uses to his financial gain, but I trust his overzealous greed will get the best of him and expose him for his true nature soon enough.

The Wrong Savage

Tolerating all these fake, internally oppressed, sit around the fort indians is very difficult some days. They're constantly trying to misrepresent all indians at large by making themselves available to our oppressors to allow them to romanticize us by their superficial, submissive, docile, domesticated, roll over mannerism. Constantly compromising the standards of our integrity to fit into the white man's ideals of being these civilized indians worthy of the over privileged, overindulgent white mans racist approval. These indians disgust me, they go out of their way to discredit the significance of the struggles we take up to defend our people and way of life, they treat the grounds of our plights like some sort of playground for them to frolic about in as those of us that are aware suffer constant turmoil and despair that they somehow find the nerve to disregarded and belittle. These indians are more of an obstacle to our struggle then those directly responsible for our oppression that encourages their behaviors, why? Because there so damn many of them polluting our community, if your confused by who I'm referring to when I speak of these treacherous people. Then let me put it in a little more of a simpler form for you to comprehend, I'm talking to you that looks at all our problems as a means to take advantage of whatever may be to your self centered favor. So if you look at me or the people I involve myself with as an opportunity for you to try and gain some status or try to manipulate our strengths to justify your selfish agendas, then your making a grave mistake by targeting this savage. I promise you that you will not appreciate the outcome of your foolish notion that I would allow you to take advantage of issues that are pertinent to the future of our people. You got your priorities pretty fucked up for allowing your stupidity to lead you down that road with me, you better turn your ass around and go stand amongst your white handlers trying to look down upon me and my people. I know when we refuse to let these indians even get close enough to try and take advantage of us, they become very resentful. Groveling at the white mans feet is no way to live, I don't care if your oblivious of your pathetic bullshit or not, that's not acceptable. I'm rather fed up with these people that act as if their unaware their making themselves our opposition by obliviously re-enforcing the systematic institutionalized racism they have cowardly assimilated themselves into. I'm sick of these blatantly ignorant, stupid ass indians trying to stand in our way of defeating our oppressors, sick of all these chicken shit cowards that try to advert their attention from the conflict that directly involves their interests as well. Then these cowards somehow find he nerve to try and complain about the oppression they either protect or condone by their ignorance or fear. Well I'll tell these cowardice, treacherous traitors of our people one thing, They don't have what it takes to try to stand in the way of this savage, so they better get their little pussy asses out of my way. I reserve no mercy for these cowards, they will not know any pity from this savage, so go ahead a cringe as you try to act as if your not aware your standing in my warpath. I promise you that you will know the wraith of the righteous if you insist on provoking justice upon your heads, you will come to know you have fucked with the wrong savage.

Gifts of Strength

There seems to be an abundance of educated ignorant people running round preventing any chance of constructive change from occurring within our communities. These individuals like to assume positions of power in order to take advantage of whatever it is that they might see as an opportunity to exploit matters to their benefit. They like to undermine anybody that threatens or challenges their pretentious ideals that routinely victimizes and neglects whomever is unfortunate to be involved in the matters of where their self centered interests lies. They invest their self centered energies in manipulating whomever is weak enough not to withstand their treachery, my elders tell me to pity these people. But these people invoke anger within me that I can not contain for they are directly interfering with the change I see needs to happen for my children to live happy productive lives. Why should I waste pity on these people that seek reward from our oppressors for their ability to assimilate themselves into the systematic institutionalized racism degrading the quality of life for my people and myself? These people pose just equally as a threat as those that hand down the oppression we are all forced to endure, these people make themselves guardians of the structural racism they have come to find comfort in. We need support from the right kind of people, with the right reasons that share the interests in the change we seek for the future of our people. Its very frustrating when those we stood up for refuse to validate or give recognition for our strength and courage to stand up to challenge our oppressors, it means the world to us when someone goes out of their way to provide us with their approval of what we're doing. It inspires the motivation we need to continue our struggle to find justice for those too emasculated to stand up for themselves, yet some of these emasculated people some how find the energy to criticize us for our ability to stand. We want to inspire strength, not envy to bring out the best in our people, we want to motivate them to at least try to see beyond the oppression that consumes so many of us. Most of us haven't had the opportunity to be desensitized by an over privileged lifestyle that disconnects these arrogant individuals from the disparities of their people. They take on our oppressors ignorance to justify their ineptness and inability to find solidarity for the struggles most of us endure, they to succumb to frustration as well and cease trying to find understanding with their people. Internalized oppression is ravaging our people and communities, we need to start speaking to the young one to inspire real change. They in turn might be the ones who get through to their parents that suffer trying to tolerate their internalized oppression, pain and suffering has been a way of life for our people for far too long. That glimmer of hope we think we see in our people gives us the strength to stand, because just maybe one day when we're charging into one of the many battles we take on, just maybe our people might be charging in as well. That is when we will all never allow ourselves to be defeated ever again. Our ancestors were fierce protectors of our ways that allowed us to care for our children, we need to be those warriors once again.

Confidential cowards with control issues.

As others try and claim their fame to the plights of our people, I take strength in knowing these shallow self-centered opportunists will falter in the face of anything of significance that confronts their weak wills. Our people have pushed back from the brink of extinction only to let these overrated, over privileged, over indulgent superficial individuals polluting our community squander the opportunities our ancestors struggled to gift us with. These people either exploit our struggles or undermined the critical aspects of the problems directly interfering with our ability to strive or even survive in today's world being Anishinaabe. These people demonize the strength of others out of jealousy or envy, these people talk behind backs in the company of other cowards because collectively they still lack the courage to express their childishly treacherous feelings to those they feel threatened by. These people let jealousy and envy become their best qualities, others that let jealousy control their lives admire these people that live their lives by the energy their jealousy generates for their hateful ways. These people are too arrogantly oblivious to notice the immaturity of their ignorance, they blame others for anything they can get away with in order to avoid taking accountability for their weaknesses they confuse and pride as strengths. Do these people deserve to be enlightened? Or do they deserve to wallow in the humility they constantly try to escape by being exposed by those of us that are keen to their corrupted ways? Because some times I think I was put on this earth for the sole purpose of confronting these false individuals that are making a sham of any and everything of importance they try to control through manipulation. Do not take my confidences as arrogance, for I myself can be very pitiful as well. I am reminded daily of my humility as equally as I am reminded of my strength and ability to be the Anishinaabe I was meant to be, and I am willing to admit that I can be a better Anishinaabe then I was that previous day every morning I wake up to put out my tobacco. But my relationship with my spirituality is a bit more advanced then these fools that delude themselves with selfish childish ignorant arrogance, they create this false persona of enlightenment in order to manipulate others into encouraging them to put their energy into their corrupted opinions and theories that are based on their self serving biases. Our children deserve for these people to snap out of their ignorant stupor, it is ALL our responsibility as Anishinaabeg to provide them with the opportunity to be the best Anishinaabe they can be. People need to quit trying to commercialize our struggles and brand them with their egos, being an Anishinaabe man, it is my responsibility to to hold those accountable openly refusing to live in accordance with the our teachings these people use to serve themselves instead of serving our people through them.

The Seventh Fire is Flickering

The flood gates of revolution are about to burst open, and as those stagnant docile caretakers and guardians of oppression become overwhelmed by the displeasure of the people, those of us that maintain our composer will reorganize the masses under a new old banner of renewed freedom and strength. We modern day warriors are trying to light the 8th fire, and as we go out to the elders to ask for their direction, their approval, we find most are too reluctant to offer their assistance. For our ancestors do not recognize some of them at all as well. Some of them or their parents have lost our ways to boarding schools, some have no wisdom to offer for they were not nurtured in the ways of our ancestors. Some of them have abandoned our ways to fulfill their selfish feelings of belonging to the white world, some have just failed to pick up that wisdom and are just as pitiful as an Anishinaabe as a young baby. Today most of our people are to shallow, superficial, too self-indulgent to be recognized by our ancestors and manidoog, most ceremonies are done in vein because our ancestors have abandoned us due to their constantly displeasure of what we have allowed ourselves to become. Too many false people pollute our lodges and are not being confronted on their lack of virtue preventing them from adhering to the significance of our teachings. They pervert our teachings to serve them instead of serving our people through the teachings, and they refuse to give up their selfish corrupted ways because they are scared of losing sight of who they think they are. The two roads of peace and the road of destruction have now been placed in front of us, we today have been warned we are pursuing the mass extinction that some of the tribes of our relatives have suffered. We have allowed ourselves to fall out of balance with nature in order to fulfill the white mans progress of greed that is rampantly consuming our ability to survive. We are no-longer the protectors of our mother earth as our ancestors once were, most of the yards of our people resemble landfills, their behaviors resemble those of the overindulgent white mans. we have lost our connection to our mother that gave us so much power to protect ourselves and way of life from those that do not respect the ways and nature of things that give us meaning. Most of us have abandoned that for conformity and assimilation, we have lost our ways. As we sit back chained to these IRA governments and their stiffing policies and watch the white man accelerate the extinction process of mankind, we are allowing ourselves to lose our reason to live. We are sacrificing our children to our greed and fear, we are letting them down everyday, we are failing to show them the strength of our ancestors, everything we are is diminishing. Conflict is inevitable. We must once again stand up and openly refuse these poisonous ways of living from destroying us all by finding ways to honor our mother earth before her discomfort forces her to consume us all, even our babies. The industrialized capitalist greed of those jeopardizing our ability to survive must be confronted and forced to be made aware their drunk of greed that is threatening to destroy us all. There are these 'green technologies' that will allow us to return to being in balance and attuned to the needs of our mother, they will help us recover from the greedy exploitation and abuse our earth has been forced to endure. All these money minded indians that glorify that dollar are just as much our enemies that threaten our survival as those greedy men around the planet putting us at risk. Their greed connects them all to the energy of this destruction that is now in front of us all. They condone and encourage us to go down that path, we all need to confront these men with intervention or force before they bring this destruction upon us all, the seventh fire is flickering.

Stuck on Stupid

Damn, guess some fools are just stuck on stupid, ignorance knows no age, but some of these supposed men/women just can't grow up. Who the hell do some of these little dummies think their fooling? Trying to use big words to veil the fact they're idiots. Their intelligence falls way far from their mark, some of these dummies should be focusing their energies on raising their kids. At least their kids are naive enough not to know that their parents barely have the common sense to dress themselves, but here we got these idiots trying to interject their obliviously obtuse opinion in on matters that demand more thought then they are either unable to conceive do to some intellectual boundary. Or they are just too ignorantly lazy to invest energy into coming to a realistic conclusion? Either way, I'm not going to dumb down and lower myself to their standards and force spoon feed them some common sense. This is chess nor checkers dummies, so as I smack their damn checker board upside down on the floor. Don't get mad at me because I reserve my patience for the mistake my children make, not grown ass idiots trying to waste my time trying to show me their ass. Anyways, these cowards ain't shit, won't be shit until they wisen up to recognize anything genuine when they can't even see past their own bullshit. That shit would be depressing to go around being that stupid, yeah I do feel sorry for these sucker ass fools, but come on. When these little dummies go around spewing bullshit, trying to dupe people that they're these enlightened intelligent individuals they obviously are not. Trying to make a fool of me as well trying to sell me on their bullshit. Shit pisses me off, because I don't have time for that shit. If they were about half the shit they talk about I wouldn't have a issue with these assholes Yeah, I'm a man of a lot of words but I know when to shut the hell up and get shit done. Maybe these little dummies are just jealous. I hate saying that shit, because I've been accused of being jealous by idiots that don't even deserve to say that word. I don't know anybody that has what I want that I don't have right in front of me right now, and their just mad and envious they haven't the ability I have to see through all the bullshit, including theirs.

The return of Zagaswediiwin (pipe council)

What is it going to take to get Ojibwes back into perspective? We all rely too much in the comfort of mainstream society that we've forgotten how to rely in our teachings to help us survive. Is it going to have to take a catastrophic event to stagger us back on track? Is it going to have to take some natural disaster to force us to acknowledge our instincts once again? We have allowed ourselves to be led a stray, we elect leaders that have no sense of direction and nobody intervenes. Nobody does an effective job of protesting the mistakes our people make by allowing these elected leaders to deceive us. They lead us with no honor or respect for the struggle and sacrifice of our ancestors. We have fallen into the habit of taking everything for granted just like our white oppressors. We have taken on their corrupted ideals that have been putting everything they touch at risk or turmoil since they began their invasion 500 years ago. They never defeated us Ojibwes, yet we are treated as if we own the white man our lives. The white man acts as if we allowed them to discretely make laws to imprison us to their oppression. They act as if we didn't force them to make treaties with us under our terms, now they want to act as if they do not need to honor these treaties that allow us to govern ourselves within our ceded territories. Northern Minnesota should be entirely under governance of Ojibwe people. After all, we did retain rights to the lands we opened up for the white man to settle upon. The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe should be able to train and provide our people with a popular army of volunteers to secure our resources and protect our people. We could call them the pillager units, named after the elite band of Ojibwes that led out the offense in most of our conflicts here in Minnesota. We need recognition within the United Nations, we need delegates to ensure that our interests are of equal concern as other nations across the world that the United States has made treaties with. The white men of Minnesota have forgotten how to appreciate their Ojibwe brothers, they imprisoned each and every one of our citizen to their systematic institutionalized racist society. We are constantly subjugated to their insensitive oppression, we are constantly neglected, mistreated, and abused in the name of the manifest destiny that our ancestors fought and prevented from rubbing out our way of life. This is Ojibwe country, not Norway, Sweden or Germany. When did our guests take it upon themselves to start making all the decisions around here? They are our guests, we taught them how to live here, we allowed them to live here. If they continued to keep trying to defeat the Ojibwe, I believe the Indian wars would have not ended the way it did. We are valiant cunning Warriors when pushed to conflict, every enemy we have ever had has come to know this first hand. This is why we must throw off the chains of this IRA government smothering our integrity, we must return to the pipe councils that bound our ancestors hearts together. We must revive our warrior society to protect our people and communities, we must follow leaders that are connected to the hearts of the people. We will return to these ways again someday, but first we must endure conflict once again. There is a civil war wagging in the hearts of our people, The mental warfare of the white man's "divide and conquer" scenario has been integrated into our communities. This is why we need our warriors, to stand up once again and protect what is so precious to us, our children. So we may renew our way of life within them, to give them the direction we have struggled so hard to hold on to before it vanishes.

The New People

As I take a good look around at the condition of my people, I can't help but to be overwhelmed by the feeling of alienation, for why can't I find comfort in ignorance and delusion? Why must I be haunted by the constant displeasure of our ancestors in what we have allowed ourselves to become? Is there others like me besides those few I have had the fortune of finding by the grace of some divine power? Or do our ancestors rejoice in the courage and strength we have found and developed to care for our people? This torment of being 'aware' is not what it is all cracked up to be. Should I feel ashamed for admiring others for their ability to find bliss within ignorance? I called this burden upon myself to be attuned to those that most of us have the ability to forsake and abandon. Why must I suffer through the criticism of the skeptics and naysayers polluting our community? Where has all the hope and strength gone that preserved our people up until us? Because I can't identify that strength in too many of us any more, defiantly not in any of our leaders. The strength of our ancestors has abandoned us to our own failure to adhere to the corruption we have assimilated ourselves into becoming. We have allowed ourselves to be perverted into these functional wretches drudging about as those that find comfort in our toil and suffrage dictate our every action. Our reservations have become misery factories, supplying society with the adequate amount of internalized oppression to justify ignorance in even the most consciously aware of minds. Patience wears as we rebel against each others compassion, and as we take out our frustrations upon one another, I keep my composure and struggle past every insignificant conflict consuming the energies of our people, because I have my eyes on the prize. The liberation from these chains tangling us to this oppression slowly consuming all those unfortunate enough to be born into this struggle known as being 'Anishinaabeg.' Being Anishinaabe comes with a great responsibility, their isn't many of us left compared to the world at large, and our world is getting smaller and smaller by the day, will we free the people from these poisonous ways of thinking before its too late? Or will we die trying? At least I will teach my children to be Anishinaabeg, and no, I don't mean snaring rabbits and ricing in birch bark canoes. I'm talking of honoring our teachings and applying them to everything we must endure and tolerate, to renew and revive our teachings to utilized them to be the most effective Anishinaabeg we can be in todays world. Why must so many sacrifice their integrity for progress and stability in the white world? There is ways of honoring and respecting the strength of our heritage and integrating it back into all the aspects of modern society, I know this because I do it every day. Most of us are abandoning the wrong things for the wrong reasons just to allow ourselves to constantly come up short as Anishinaabeg. We are disconnecting ourselves constantly with the virtues that give us strength to be Anishinaabeg, most of us don't even have the right to consider ourselves Anishinaabe anymore in my opinion. Dancing and singing at a pow wow for money doesn't make us anymore Indian then those manipulating the weak hearted through the lodge of our ancestors. Most people going through those lodges don't deserve to be considered "mide." For these people remain directionless, these people go through for status and grandeur, not to be attuned to our ancestors and manidous. I pursued initiation to the lodge just to find out its over-rated and a waste of time, don't get me wrong, there is a few genuine people trying to provide direction within those lodges, but they are greatly out numbered by those abusing its teachings. Many of our lodges have lost their energy do to the selfish greed of those tending and attending them, too many have lost sight of the miigis, so that is why I have chosen to become one of the new people that is still guided by the old voices. Not to desecrate the sanctity of our teachings, but to honor them in a more effective way that isn't hindered by the obsolete ideals of the ones preventing us from fulfilling our destinies in a good way as Anishinaabeg, we are not to be these shallow, superficial people giving way our significance to the thinking of the white man. We need to become the Anishinaabeg once again, the Anishinaabeg before the miigis and the migration and the lodge, we must come together to show the world how to honor and respect what was gifted to us before it is lost forever. First we must remember who we were before we had to become the people of the lodge. We must show those too scared to listen to their hearts that they must start thinking for themselves for the benefit of our people. We must all recover from those corrupted ways of thinking the church has poisoned our lodges with, because too many of those medicine men and women have become reminiscent to the priests and charlatans of those churches that stole our strength from our ancestors, taking advantage of those seeking direction. Those that are genuine are few and far between from those that use the lodge and its teachings to be corrupted as a tool for them to manipulate others, I know these things because I listen to my heart, and if anyone tells me my heart is wrong, they better be prepared to have differences with me. Having the courage to listen to our hearts is not easy to come by these days,yet we all have this gift to listen to our hearts, but there are those that find pleasure or material gain in manipulating others into not listening to their hearts, and these people who think they are powerful or of great stature are in reality; very pitiful. Anyone that doesn't allow you to adhere to your inner voice of your heart should not be a person to look to for direction, for they will only mislead you from your path and use you to their advantage. The lodge has its use, but now that use is leaving most of us, and that is in our prophecies as well, and those that claim their tending to the strength of our lodge for selfish reasons are the ones who are scared of losing the power they think that lodge has given then. They refuse to follow the miigis any longer and ignore our prophecies all together, and that will prevent us from ever lighting the 8th fire. Pleases don't take offense in what I have said, I don't claim to have all the answers, I only know what is good for me. I don't claim to be able to provide others with direction, but this is what my heart feels, we should all find the courage to listen to our hearts for direction once again. There is no gain in trying to over complicate matters by over-investing thought into things we know feels right within our hearts, I just know I will not waste my energy fighting what I know is right within my heart.