Stand Up For Your People

Introduction

My mother Paulette worked for the Intertribal Council of Arizona. When I would go to visit her at work, her office was a mess of policies and legal papers. Now I realize what she went through trying to organize dozens of different reports and reference sources. My own cubicle is starting to resemble hers.

History moves on, but life for humans revolves in cycles. Today Native American prisoners find themselves in the same situations they faced decades ago. Fixes were made to prevent conflict and empower, or at least equalize, Native American religious practitioners in Arizona back in the 80’s and 90’s. But the penological system is a constant river of oppression. Prison policies are constantly rewritten to reflect the ultimate empowerment of the oppressors versus the oppressed. Hell, prison officials don’t even follow their own policies half the time, they just make it up as they go along.

The effect is detrimental to the heart of Native America. The psychological suffering we endure from the overt denial of traditional Native American spiritual practices causes enduring trauma. At some point we just give up. Apathy becomes a part of our personality, and we spread that apathy to our children. The condition spreads.

You would think that states that have a higher concentration of Native American prisoners would be more sensitive to Native American spiritual practice. Today the opposite is true. Prison officials in Arizona engage in the worst kind of racial discrimination . . . Religious Intolerance.

CHAPTER ONE

Native American Religious Oppression In the Heart of the Arizona Department of Corrections

Testimonies before Senate

There is a need for our legal system to protect Native American religious freedom. We can only regret the enormous loss to our nation’s heritage caused by a long history of government suppression of tribal religions. The challenge before Congress is to safeguard what little remains. After 500 years since the arrival of Columbus, the time is long overdue for society to grant respect and equal protection to the religious freedom of those who were here first.

Walter Echo-Hawk, 1992

American Indian Religious Freedom Act has not assured religious freedom.

Lenny Foster, 1992

Rules seem to change from institution to institution at the whim of those in control.

Ted Means, 1993

Inmates who request services or try to correct inconsistencies often become targets of the administration and are transferred.

Vernon Bellecourt, 1993

Articles

Interior, Justice to meet with Indians.

The Washington Times, Mar. 22, 1994

(Navajo Nation President Peterson) Zah wants unity for religious freedom.

The Navajo-Hopi Observer, Mar. 23, 1994

Inmate Rights Violated.

Navajo Times, Mar. 21, 1994

Rights Denied to Native Americans, panel says.

University Daily Kansan, Mar. 21, 1994

Pronounced need exists for an Attorney General Directive and a national litigation strategy to protect free exercise rights of Native American prisoners, with strong support from Indian Tribes and practitioners of Federal Indian Law. As no other segment in American society, Indian prisoners are actually subject to government restrictions on the freedom of worship. Their right to worship in totalitarian prison environments is the most heavily regulated civil liberty in the United States. Further, a host of criminal justice studies should be performed to better understand these forgotten Americans and to develop appropriate criminal justice programs.

Walter Echo-Hawk, Study of Native American Prisoner Issues, National Indian Policy Center, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 1996

The First Peoples

By Walks in Faith

It has been a long and difficult journey for the Native American. Forced removal and relocation from our ancestral lands, hunting grounds and villages. Intentional subjection to famine, disease, slavery, torture, rape, and murder to name but a few. They even tried to exterminate our religion and languages. They, being of course foreign invaders of European and Spanish descent. –Yet through it all, still we remain. –

There is a spirit that is wakan that thrives within us. In the midst of this current economic crisis, bitter cold of the winters, and scorching heat of the long summers, we fight through the hunger of an empty stomach, the thirst of a dry mouth. The withdrawals of addiction and the isolation of incarceration. The racism of a hateful world and an unjust government on both the state and national levels. But sometimes the enemy is much closer to us. The brutality of domestic violence, verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, the hardships of broken homes and the emptiness of abandonment.

Yet through it all, this spirit remains. From behind the prison fence we now came blessed with the spirit of our ancestors. To stand proud of who we are and for what we believe in. To know who we are as a people, where we come from and how much we’ve suffered.

Inside the sweat lodge grounds upon Mother Earth we firmly stand and she welcomes our every footstep.

Our sweat smudge and pipe ceremonies have been handed down for generations. The lava rocks, drum, medicine bags, eagle feathers, gourds, headbands and herbs have all been blessed by our Medicine Man and have been made forever sacred.

The fire pit, altar, and inipi have also been blessed and made to be wakan.

All are now connected to the universe and come to life in the realm of the supernatural before, during, and after every ceremony.

We now declare that we will not be denied the right to practice our religion and sacred ceremonies.

We will not be denied the respect due towards our religious beliefs, ceremonies, sacred grounds, and items.

We are the Native American, the Red Nation. We are the First Peoples.

Initiating Conflict

It was not my intention to be involved in constitutional rights. My goal in taking the Blackstone paralegal course was to be able to help myself with post conviction relief. By the time I had finished the year long program I had found myself walking another path. I do not ask where most roads lead, I simply find the most interesting path and follow it. I always try to find the hard road leading up, because at the end of your journey you will always wonder what was down that other way. I always travel the road less traveled.

The first two years I was in prison I would help out with the fire at the sweat lodge and remained clueless as to what it was about. At the first unit I was at I did not realize there was anything amiss until a memo showed up on the bulletin boards. The memo stated that if there was no wood for the sweat, that we could not use the sweat lodge area for our talking circles or smudge ceremony. Also the Chaplain at that unit told us we had to use the multi-denominational (Christian) religious chapel to gather if we had no wood. A few did, but most did not. The memo, to me, seemed to deflate the group, and very few people would sweat, less than ten at times. The group fractionated, and we each went our separate paths. I started talking more to an older Chief about legal issues. A new Chaplain had come to the unit and there was an adjustment. The main conflict was the herbs we were allowed. The second was only having one sweat lodge porter doing too much work, and needing a helper. The third was being locked out of our Church, the lodge area, and not having a place to smudge or have talking circles. You will find these same conflicts today at every Arizona prisons at every sweat lodge. Arizona prisons are combined in a policy called the DO 909. An unconstitutional constitution that severely restricts the actions of all inmates. It is only followed half and half at most times. The expanse of rules in it is ludicrous. Officers often violate their own policy, but are never held accountable. When the policy goes toward the favor of the inmates rather than the officers, it is removed or re-written. This happened with the no touch policy that was existent in 1995 for sacred items but disappeared from current policy. Also missing but existing in prior policy is the stipulation to have two Native American inmates present during sweat lodge searches to prevent desecration, intentional or unintentional.

The Dark Side

There are certain rules for the institution: Rules of the Darkness

1. Never admit any wrong doing, everything is covered by policy (No such thing as accountability for the Institution).

2. If the inmate uses policy against the officer, the policy must be:

3. Denied

a. Rewritten

b. Removed

So the Officer is always right no matter what.

1. If the inmate complains on paper (grievance) he must be:

a. Harassed

b. Sent to the hole (administrative segregation)

c. Shipped off to the next unit

These are the big three that keep most of us silent. Also, there are unwritten rules for the inmates I have run into, and any advocate will run into as well. Never put your name on paper, never stir things up, and just accept things as they are. Sometimes I am asked why I get involved. There are ways around the system. I believe the policy in regards to Native American rights is flawed and unconstitutional. We should have the right to practice our religion the way we want to. That is why I do what I do.

Conflict

Conflict with regards to Native American rights is caused from two separate goals from two separate sources. The goal of the institution is Control under the guise of security or penal logical interest. The goal of the Native Americans is to practice an existing way that goes beyond the definition of religion. We have no books that say you can do this or that. God for us does not look like a white man with a beard sitting on a cloud. Why so much concern about what is at the end of the road? What about the road we are traveling now? The animals of the forest and desert know more than we do about the journey. Of course this kind of non-written belief system is pagan to some. You are worshipping false idols, they say. Are we not both celebrating the Creator? You are all going to burn in hell. For the most part, I do not believe in hell, except for that which is created by one’s self. Everything we say is the Absolute Truth! Sure everyone believes that they are right within their own set of beliefs, written in their own book. There are excuses for everything. The Indian wars, the extermination of Native America, boarding schools, and American concentration camps called Reservations. Our people are used to the control and domination of the system. Why are minorities imprisoned more often than whites?

I would not be walking this road or this train of thought had not others pointed it out to me. It would have taken me longer to find it. The manifest is a response to a conflict that will be explained in great detail. Much of it is repetitive because what started as a proposal to the administration ended up growing each time the officials would add more adverse reactions to the initial conflict. Within six months of sending out the manifest virtually all the issues with Native American rights were addressed and oppressed. This has given me many things to write about. Really it all starts with one letter. The letter is from Irene Herder, Legislative Associate, regarding an update on the National Native American Prisoners Rights Advocacy Coalition (NNAPRAC) meetings in Denver Colorado. It was dated December 16, 1996, and addressed to Albert Hale, President of the Navajo Nation, Washington office. One of my Native American brothers gave me a copy, over ten years it has been passed down, like an ancient weapon I realized it could be forged into a manifest for our rights. Words can become great power if placed in the right place and acted upon.

Len Foster and Walter Echo-Hawk had been on the outside, yelling to the bureaucrats that the forest of religious rights was on fire. They were trying to obtain a directive from then Attorney General Janet Reno to increase Federal protection for the free exercise of religion by Native American prisoners.

I know that the Religious Freedom Protection Act has been struck down in this time period (6-26-97) as being unconstitutional for the state courts. Also in reading a letter from Walter R. Echo-Hawk to Arther Peabody Jr. Section Chief of the United States Department of Justice, I know that they stood in the middle of the fire as the forest burned. Native Americans lost case after case during the time period due to the penal logical interests of security concerns. During this period the forest burned down. Native American religious freedom was lost, until the Religious Land Uses for Institutionalized Persons Act was passed, but the system has its own ways.

Initiating Conflict

Rose Ann Kisto was a contractor for the Arizona Department of Corrections. She was contracted about this time (1994) to write a manual about Native American beliefs, The Arizona Department of Corrections Manual, revised July 1994. Len Foster was one of the advisors she consulted. Parts of the manual were copied word of word as the Native American religious policy. The lists the Chaplains have restricting our religious possessions and herbs are derived from this manual. This manual should be a valuable piece of evidence against the Arizona DOC and their policy’s infringement of the religious rights of Native Americans. Unfortunately it does not do enough research on the religious herbs we use. A book to review on the herbs would be Sacred Smoke: The Ancient Art of Smudging for Modern Times by McCampbell. Also a great book on the sweat lodge is Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge by Raymond A. Bucko. The internet is severely lacking in information on Native American rights, so we must all work to change that.

As I walked into the second prison in my vacation into American slavery, the correction process, I did not really know where I was. The forest had been burnt down, the animals roasted. A new facility for Big Brother had been built and the Native Americans eventually were given a spot to have their Sweat Lodge, and that’s it. Volunteers from the outside had to come in to get the area a water source and fence. The area is smack dab open in the middle of the recreational yard, a major walk way within five feet of our religious area. It almost seems like a stage for everyone to watch. Watching the event unfold as they have gives me a glimpse into an ominous future. Policy has been re-written and removed piece by piece. Memos have been written. We have been given a sweat lodge, but no fire wood to burn. They have already thought of this and I can see where all of this is going. By use of the MEMO we are banned from using our religious area, where do we smudge, where do we have our talking circles? They want us to use their church to play our music. Do they want us to shave our heads and carry bibles when we go in there too? Notice anything amiss?

In 1979, there was a group known as the Native American Brotherhood that helped with the religious freedom for our rights. However, the group was branded a security threat group and is no longer allowed by the system. So what are we now? Is it the Native American Indian Faith group? Can we have fund raisers to pay for our firewood? If not, then are they not denying us our religious freedom by not providing firewood policy? The policy lacks the appropriate measures for us to practice our religion. We cannot wear headbands whenever we want, but other Faiths wear crosses and pentagrams? There is smoke blowing about what rights we have.

I am surrounded by smoke but everyone else is used to it. We ask Lenny to help us, but that is like asking him to put out a forest fire, one tree at a time. I can see the lake, but we need all of our hands to pass the buckets. We need to stop acting like things are okay and start asking questions. Every time you write an inmate letter about Native American rights in prison, you dip your bucket into the lake. Every time you talk to someone about these things you pass the bucket. The water needs to get to the fire. We are the ones in the forest; Len Foster and Walter Echo-Hawk are on the outside trying to work to make a change. Effort needs to happen on both sides of the fence to effect change. So what happened to the initiative for our rights? Lenny Foster and Walter Echo-Hawk, our advocates along with others, do their best for all of us, but in the great bureaucracy of the prison the initiative was stalled. They make a lot of money the way things are, and the politicians go where they money flows. Ignorance, indifference, silence, and miscommunication are like currency to their system. If you engage in the opposite of these things we can grow. The alternative is to lose what little we have left.

Final Note On Music

Administration will flip flop their unwritten policies at any time. The overall policy is written in a way that covers the actions of the administrators and officers. When they act outside of policy, as they often do, they will not admit it and cite security or monetary reasons. For example, when the fence was put up around the sweat lodge originally here, we asked for gates on the openings to protect the area. The officers refused citing security reasons. Years later, on June 19, 2009, they put gates and locks on our lodge after officers and the Chaplain desecrated it in the May, 2009 incident citing security reasons. Flip flop they make up rules as they go with complete disregard to Native American constitutional rights regarding our freedom to practice religion is not on their approved list.

A couple of years ago I worked as a teacher’s aide in mandatory literacy. We (inmates) filled the roles of teacher, tutor, and counselor for inmates with less than an 8th grade education. One of the Native American students I worked with informed me that there was a new music program finally being started at prior prison I was at. He tried to sign up but the chaplain informed him that he had to attend two religious turn outs. The Native American turn out had one turn out during the week, the sweat lodge. So he gave into the system, studied Christianity, and signed up for the bible study during the week, the only other religious turn out he had the option of attending.

I sent a kite to the prison chaplain asking about the requirements to join the music program and he scheduled a time to talk to him in person. I talked shortly with the white, bald Chaplain. I asked him, I am Native American, is it not unfair to require two religious turn outs when we only have one? Sweating (he seemed to sweat constantly), the grumpy Chaplain told me, It is my program I will do what I want. I replied, I will need to see that on paper. He replied, That is not going to happen. Well then I guess that is it. So I left frustrated.

A year later after I was moved to CACF and had an Eskimo bunkie, he also had similar difficulties joining the sweat lodge turn out and with other issues. He informed me that there was also the same requirement to attend two religious turn outs for the music program. I had trouble verifying this so I sent an inmate letter to the Chaplain to join the sweat lodge and join the music program. He replied, Only one issue per IML (inmate letter). I wrote another letter asking about the requirements for the music program and he wrote back on the letter, Just come in and sign up. I threw it away. I should have saved it, because it did not have the admission I was seeking and the answer was not typed on their computer system. Without copies of the letter there is no proof, and I have seen more than one inmate given a ticket for lying when they were telling the truth. I signed up to join the music program in August. I was told there was a three month wait. By December I was not called and my name was not on the list, so I signed up again. I tried to write a letter to the senior Chaplain in administration about the herbs and music program, but it had to be mailed out so the Chaplain intercepted it. I wrote: We are the native American Practitioners at GEO. We require the following herbs for use in our religious ceremonies: white sage, bearberry, red willow bark, peppermint, spearmint, osha/snake root, lavender, red cedar, pinon, flat cedar, South Dakota sage, California sage, flag root, anise seed, large leaf sage, Oregon sage, desert sage, and mountain tobacco. You ask what is the specific reason for the herbs. The reason is to give an offering to our creator. It is simply what we do to establish a connection to our spirituality. My father, who was a bird singer (Medicine Man), taught me that when you make an offering to Father Sky, the Great Spirit, you become a phone call from Mother Earth. We use multiple herbs of the desert as part of tradition. They were all part of the desert and we breathe them, cover our bodies with the smoke, and release them upwards to the spirits. How can we better explain this to you within your beliefs, they are different from ours. We do not ask why chapters 1 or 5 are in the bible. When you deny us different herbs it is like asking us to remove pages from our bible. Thank you for your help in this matter. November 26, 2009. I believe that within the time I first asked about the music program requirement in August to the time I wrote this next letter (kite) asking about the program in November someone else must have complained about the two religious turn out requirement. I do not know for sure, however, and I could never prove any of this, but logic points toward a certain direction many of these instances.

On the other kite I wrote: I have tried to clarify this issue but have not received a direct answer back. Previously there was a requirement to attend two religious turn outs to be able to be part of the MUSIC PROGRAM. This is problem for me since I am Native American on the sweat lodge turn out. What is the requirement for the music program?

The Chaplain