AIM Support Group of Ohio & N. KentuckyUpdates and Announcements
Tuesday, September 24, 2002Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 Subject: Octgan Mound visit Thursday Sept. 19 fourteen people went to the Octagon Mound for a prayer circle. The Moundbuilders Country Club did not say anything to us. Several of the older men spoke to me with a smile and a nod. Some of the younger golfers acted as if they wish we were not there, but they did not speak or hit balls toward us. Channel 4 TV crew was there, I suppose having the cameras rolling played a big part in how we were treated. Kyle Anderson of Ch.4 and a staff reporter from the Advocate Newspaper did the reporting. I ask the staff reporter how did you know we were here? he said "I called ch. 4 and Kyle told me." Kyle then spoke up and said "I called Mrs. Crandell And she told me She and several people were going to the mound and I ask if I could go with them, she said that is what the big issue is about, I keep saying it is public ground everybody is welcome, the MBCC keeps saying it is not open to the public. You are welcome to be there as far as I am concerned, So here I am." I will not name the people that attended the prayer circle because I did not ask them if I could use their name, but I would like to say their presence was like a big dose of feel good tonic. Three people traveled from Ross county, one person came from Cambridge Oh, several from columbus, and our own local Indians. I was so depressed over the trial date being screwed up and knowing in my heart the delay was meant to be a form of harassment against me. I am going to hang in there and see this thing through. We may not win but they will know we were in the running. Two of the men that came to the mound was so ill they could hardly stand up. That is the spirit that the MBCC is up against. I don't believe they can beat that kind of good will and determination. One of our friendsofthemounds had a digital camera and took some pictures. Maybe we could ask her to post a few of them on the friends and support group net. I have seen some of the pictures and they are good. Barbara Crandell ============================= Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 Subject: A Pox on Our House September 22, 2002 A Pox on Our House By GREGG BOURLAND as told to SUSAN BURTON http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/22/magazine/22LIVES.html?pagewanted=print& I'm the tribal chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. We're in west-central South Dakota, probably farther away from civilization than any other reservation in the United States. You would think that being out here, we wouldn't be so worried about potential terrorist attacks. I don't think that Al Qaeda is the least bit concerned about Native America. But smallpox is highly contagious. A lot of the tribal council members are jet-setting around the country. One carrier could travel to 10 major cities in the United States in just a couple days' time and spread it God knows where. I was reared by my grandparents on the reservation. My grandmother would tell me how she had lost uncles and her grandma to the disease, how it had devastated our family. The recent talk about smallpox brought back those horror stories. It's estimated that smallpox and European-borne diseases killed at least half of the Native Americans on this continent. Of course, some diseases also had devastating effects on the European populations. Native Americans had virtually no tolerance, no immunity, to smallpox. It's a historical fact that in the 18th century, some Europeans deliberately tried to infect Native Americans with the disease. In 1763, British officials gave Native Americans blankets that had been used in a hospital for people with smallpox. The rest of the world just might get a taste of what Native Americans went through when conquistadors planted their feet on our soil. I wrote a letter to Senator Tom Daschle. Because his office had an anthrax attack, I felt that my letter would be very close to his heart. I was asking that vaccines be provided for every Native American who wishes to be immunized. I'm all for the health-care workers, doctors, nurses, people on the front lines, soldiers -- I'm all for them getting it. But the Native American people have always been the last to get anything. Our feeling is that we better start shouting now. What are the plans in the event of an outbreak? None of the politicians want to talk about it. Native America wants to talk about it. We all need to be aware of the symptoms. If I came down with smallpox today, I wouldn't even know what the heck it was. When I was a kid, the entire reservation was inoculated for smallpox. I remember the day that I got it because the big to-do was that it always left a little round mark on your arm. But when they vaccinated me, it didn't leave the little round mark. It left no mark at all. So I always used to wonder if I was really vaccinated or not. Last November, I was on a radio talk show, ''Native America Calling.'' Quite a few people called in. One lady said, ''Maybe Native Americans built up an immunity; maybe you guys are more immune than the rest of us.'' I told her, ''It would be nice if your theory would work, but how do you test that?'' On the same show, I chastised one guy, a Native American, who was ready to give up. He said, ''If smallpox hits . . . well, we're at war; people will die.'' I told him: ''That's not a warrior's attitude. That's a defeatist's. When you go to war, you're going to have your weapons to fight back. Smallpox is preventable. We can fight back.'' Smallpox is personal for me because of the stories my grandmother told me as I was growing up. My grandma's grandma, my great-great-grandmother, her name was Blue Earrings. She was a powerful Lakota medicine woman. They say that she drank water all the time. She got sick from smallpox, and when she was getting ready to die, she asked for a bowl of water. She said, ''I'm going to show you part of my powers, and why I'm sick.'' They put the bowl in front of her, and she spit into it, and out of her mouth flew four little water creatures. Here in the Dakotas, around the edge of lakes, there are these insects. They look as if they can walk on the water. They skitter. Three of them were jumping around in the bowl, and the other was dead. She pointed and said: ''See, that one got sick from this white man's disease, from smallpox. If that one can't live, I can't live, either.'' And she died. I don't know if you believe in spiritual things. But I think Blue Earrings would want me to do what I'm doing right now, fighting for my people, for their right to survive in a world free from smallpox. These stories are very real to us. They're vivid in our memory yet. Unfortunately they're not vivid in the memory of the general populace. In our Lakota way, the children are the future, and the elders are the keepers of wisdom. I am very concerned that the elders and the children are protected first, then the rest. If there isn't enough vaccine to go around, fine, I've lived 45 years, I'll be glad to donate mine to some child or elder. I don't want to see anyone suffer. I just hope that they come up with enough vaccine for everybody in our country. I don't want to seem selfish just for Native Americans. But I have to defend my people first. posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 4:20 PM Last updated:
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