Chief Wilma

In memorial:    Wilma Pearl Mankiller (November 18, 1945 – April 6, 2010)

If we don't frame the issues, someone else will frame the issues for us.

She told my social work class here in Tahlequah thirty-five years ago this same message. They were scary times for natives, the possibility existed then that 25% of indigenous population  could be wiped out by hiv/aids. Just as it was sweeping through tribal life in Africa it would do also here, after already taking a generation of ignorant gays here. Wilma led us people through it with education, she also brought moral authority of her elders to light, personal responsibility and consequences of irresponsibility to man and nature.

I been doing this 30 years now and she is still right. She takes care of her people because she cares for all people. I dig her name, too.  If I had a choice: tea with the queen, a beer with 'bama, or audience with the pope,  I would choose none, I’d just as soon have Iced Tea and fry-bread with Wilma, at home, than walk across the street for a photo op with any of the others.... If all those folks really cared about what I thought, they would ask me, no one but her has asked me anything, they seem to tell me what I need to think without any input from me….if the news media will not do their jobs, we all, the human race,  must frame the issues now, before mass die-offs occur due to apathy and over-consumption. These are the issues we should be framing for a or any future.

-- Wilma Mankiller said American Indian journalists can break down barriers just as she did 30 years ago when she became the first woman in modern history to lead a major Indian tribe........ "This is a time when the unique perspective of Native American journalists is needed," she told 25 students and others attending the American Indian Journalism Institute that day.

"Perception is as much of a threat as anti-sovereignty legislation. We have to regain control of our image," said Mankiller, who in 1985 became principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the second largest tribe with more than 140,000 enrolled members and an annual budget of $75 million. (tribal assets are currently mushrooming exponentially 2012.)

American Indians can accurately portray themselves and their many issues and accomplishments by training more Indian journalists through programs such as AIJI, Mankiller said..... "There are dangerous stereotypes. We have to tell our own stories," she said............. "If we don't frame the issues, someone else will frame the issues for us."

Mankiller said, for example, the story needs to be told that American Indians have the best military service record of any ethnic group in the United States.

She offered recommendations for success to the college students: critical thinking, standing up for American Indian values and culture, educating others about tribal traditions and history, and responding with education rather than anger or impatience.

"The Mohawks said they teach young people to respond not with anger, but to always look forward. They say it's hard to see the future with tears in your eyes," she said.

"I add that it's hard to see the future with anger in your heart and tears in your eyes."

She challenged the students to uncover and share important stories affecting American Indians.

"There are wonderful, inspiring stories that never get reported," she said.

She made me believe I could change the world, by doing my part. Between chief Wilma and Sarah Brown of Columbia University, they shocked my social conscience into hero mode, god save the queen and at least half of the women and a few liberals!  Eager and pragmatic I wanted to fix all the social ills yesterday single-handed. didn’t take but a few years and few cases of beer to figure out I didn’t have the tools, beers or the patience to do the job yet. I was stealing when I should have been buying.

I think we should concede the native American immigration policy was flawed from the start. We are fixing a leaking canoe now with all of us and everything we own in it. First thing I would do is drive that dam Plymouth  rock about two miles inland so they wont tie anymore boats to it. Leave a hole in the fence so the Yankee carpet baggers can get out and go back to the old country. Once you take everything we are free again. File this under puritans, hypocrisy of democracy.   

History Lessons and urban myths………..framing the issues. Lesson 3.

.......................keep fighting the good fight, with your minds as weapons........................
.........................kosmicdebris.......................