MY DAUGHTER WENT MISSING!!!

“My Daughter went missing 5 MONTHS AGO and still has not been found!”

Her Voice Broke The Room Into Pieces

“My daughter is somewhere screaming for HELP!! And no one is there to hear her”

In the same way that an Eagle’s Cry pierced the sky, her words punctured the room. Her words bled over all of us.

Her hair hung to her hips and her eyes were slanted and swollen as she gazed past the ceiling of the room and into the depth of the blue sky beyond.... tears poured from the corners of her eyes.

“Every last one of you played a role in HER disappearance... Every last one of you played a role in OUR disappearance”.

Though my beadwork is mediocre, as my hands are new to the amount of extreme dexterity it requires, I MUST BEAD TO REMEMBER. To “create happiness” is a Luxury. When we bead, we bead to SURVIVE. Like quilts of my African Ancestors that told the stories that lead the way to Freedom, the beads, the feathers, the quills, all recount the memory of our resilience despite every attempt to annihilate my Native American Ancestors. So many of our stories, lives, arts and ways of life, have been stolen from us. And NO ONE CARES. These histories will not be taught in schools, nor will these stories be told on the News...As our children go missing (as a direct result/correlation of/to extraction of fossil fuels and the “man camps” created that facilitate sex trafficking of our women and children), America sits in silence. Will the History be told?! No. Instead, everyone will continue to walk these lands in blissful ignorance, blind to the blood on their hands.

But, You see, WE cannot bead with blood on our hands.... so we try to keep them clean.

No bloodstains on the thread. No bloodstains on the scissors with which we cut the thread and fabric. No bloodstains on the fabric. When we take from the Earth, we give back. We refrain from participating in activities that contribute to the oppression of others. We replenish natural resources. We fight to preserve Life. When we bead, when we sew, we preserve our existence. An existence that No one else acknowledges. There is no dollar amount that can coerce us into betraying our duty to keep balance between nature and all of mankind (which can be said of all indigenous people of the world stretching across Australia, the pacific islands, the Americas, Africa and wherever indigenous philosophy and culture has remained in tact).

Ways that Mainstream America and Our Everyday Behavior Contributes to the continued Genocide and Oppression of Native Peoples:

-the erasure of Native Culture is convenient for capitalism. It is convenient for the mass colonization/gentrification of lands as it pertains to the development of cities.... ranging from the early saloons to the modern micro-breweries. Native Culture, by its Nature, is connected to every living thing on this land. This means that Native people are the people who most fervently and adamantly protect Land, Water (such as rivers, Lakes, oceans), Forests, creatures such as fish, Buffalo, deer, eagles and hawks, beavers, seals, orcas, whales, otters, turtles, etc., etc. In the constant battle to protect and preserve the cleanliness of our only inhabitable planet, Native people are met with violence, hatred, abuse, governmental prejudice in the form of broken treaties, displacement. All for wanting to preserve our drinking water..... I guess everyone else will listen to what Native people say about the importance of water once we have run out of all of the clean water sources because they are filled with oil that has spilled or fracking fluid chemicals. Maybe when we are all thirsty for the last clean drop of water, we will listen.

-By ignoring the fact that the Native American community as a whole is fighting a constant epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This epidemic has lasted for over 400 years, beginning when Europe decided to conquer all of the Lands stretching from what we now know as “North America, Central America, The Caribbean, and South America”. Starting with the Most Famous “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman” named Pocahontas with whom I share the Tribal Ancestry of Pamunkey/Powhatan. Court Proceeding air occasionally on CSpan that document tribes across All of the Americas stretching from Alaska, Canada, USA, Central, South America etc., where tribal leaders, and lawyers advocate for women and their families effected by political negligence that directly fuels kidnapping of our people.

-Every aspect of Mainstream culture DEGRADES AND DESTROYS Native way of Life. The way that people believe that they can “own land”, eradicates living space. Pipelines and Fracking, Coal Mining, Oil usage, and usage of fossil Fuels ALL DESTROY the Earth, Water and Air. Native American people, are the people who FIGHT AGAINST pollution, not just for the sake of themselves, but for the sake of ALL HUMANITY..... but when the “Standing Rock” movement of 2016 and 2017 was battling against the installation of an oil pipeline on lands previously treatied to the Tribe, so much of America stood quiet. Even despite the fact that these Native Americans were risking their lives in the death of a sub-freezing winter to protect the land and water from being polluted, much of America stood silently as our Men/Women/Children were teargassed, hosed down in the cold, pushed around, met with army tanks, etc. News outlets refuse to report from a Native perspective.

-watching silently while News outlets misconstrue Native culture. Everyone’s silence when Saturday Night Live does a skit about “Pocahontas” where non-Native people where traditional styled regalia to parody our culture like it’s a mockery or like our artifacts and articles of clothing are a mere costume or something to make fun of.

-By committing Genocide and displacing millions of Indigenous People for the convenience of developing “America” and American social structure and government. Methods of eradicating Native People and ways of life include forced migration (such as the trail of tears), kidnapping and forced enrollment into Boarding Schools, mass murder, mass murder of Buffalo (as a tribal resource), destruction of traditionally sacred lands for the sake of carving genocidal presidents into the sides of our mountains (Mt. Rushmore), etc., the list goes on.

-Every time we named a Mountain or A Street after someone who “settled” a town by burning a village. Here, where I live, is home to “THE SANDCREEK MASSACRE”. An event after which we named our mountain and streets “Evans” for the general who was responsible for killing thousands of people in order to establish the City of Denver. There are people who live on this land who are descended of the people who survived, people who fought. These are some of the people pictured below who PROTEST in the streets, in scorching hot sun or rain or snow, to make sure that EVERYONE REMEMBERS THE PEOPLE OF THIS LAND, THE ANCESTORS, the people whose lives have been stolen, the traditions that were forced from our hands, the languages, the songs, the drum rhythms.

-calling a football team The “Red skins”

-celebrating Thanksgiving without recognizing that it represents a paradigm shift of peace into centuries of unprecedented mass violence.

-wearing a headdress in a music video or television show as a non- native person

-dressing up as Native Americans for Halloween... etc..

-the list goes on.... but ignorance is the biggest crime. Ignoring this writing is a crime. Belittling our way of life is a crime.... laughing as someone makes jokes on television DIRECTLY RESULTS IN THE LOSS OF A CHILD.... The loss of a mother. A sister... a brother... a Father.

MORAL OF THE STORY.... while America chooses to ignore all of these things.... Bludgeoning our people out of society, WE BEAD. WE SEW. WE DANCE. WE SING. WE DRUM.