~~ Again an intrusion in Culture ~~
There seems to be some resentment around here. Not surprising the way Non Hispanic Whites react to the realities of their own wreckage. Yes here in Broken Arrow the Kialegee Tribal Town is building a casino. The racist neighbors in these dark and desolate parts of Tulsa are outraged. They complain about the what if's.
What if the gambler brings violence into this "Qoute" quiet part of Broken Arrow. So it is okay to have multiplexes of new home developments, and a Government funded church on every other block. Everything from the abstract snake charmer, to the non biblical denominations which litter the landscape.
I am Old Fashioned, and I rarely see an Episcopal Church, let alone a Catholic church around here. These people have hidden from society for a long time. Theirs is a selfish motive. We should live here and practice our religions, but GOD forbid should anyone decide to build on Native American land!
Yes these tribes own Oklahoma, they were displaced by the military and the American Government! Now many decades later, they think they have a strong hold on this land. I mean the license plate of Oklahoma is "Native America"
Well I call on my political audience to rub out the ignorant and intolerant and let this tribe build a casino who by the way will increase the real estate value of this entire backwards ass land.
I am a city man. I know the ups and downs, I know culture, and to see my Native American brothers and sisters have to answer and define anything to the MOB is a fantasy!!!
More on this as time passes... But if you are from the South West, good luck in pushing down the culture your ancestors made walk in the snow, to freeze and die just to relocate them to better more controllable lands...
Comments?
We must continually battle the power of money, politics, and those that hold it. I come from Mexico (half indian and half spanish), an appreciative naturalized citizen attained with hardship through an ethnically and racially biased bureaucracy. Some of us have had to battle to elucidate and illuminate the facts of 'American' history and their demons. Unfortunately, the misrepresentation, misinformation creating continued bigotry, racism, bias are still quite prevalent, pervasive and omnipresent.
ReplyDeleteI reside in Indiana bordering Michigan, analagously not a liberal oasis, where they've opened a couple of tribal casinos and we've not had problems with the criminal elements in fact are in the process of expanding. They have created many jobs, albeit not high income based but none the less, jobs.
Good luck in your battle and I hope you get necessary exposure to your position on the positive aspects of this.
These protesters are ignorant and intolerant. They troll any media outlet, spew their bigotry, and make statements that have no merit. Thank you for this blog Jesse.
ReplyDeleteI agree let them build the casinos. Good post Jesse
ReplyDeleteI have always been outraged at how the Natives of the USA are being treated.
ReplyDeleteNene,
ReplyDeletethat is exactly the point, illumination, exposure, reflections, all of those ad infinitude, and still the political rhetoric in this borrowed, and stolen land sound off; and I say off the side of their neck!...
Fight one might ponder; with bullets? With knives? No with words, two brothers could battle over a meal without ketchup in these parts.
Two sisters could lose their souls in ignorance.
I too come from that fragmented contemporary colonization. Where the kingdom of Spain sent the worst, and then burned the history of our culture.
We had many trades, and the sisters and brothers of Northern America learned from us; How to grow crops of Maize, aka corn, we developed a society free of jealousy, and bigotry.
I am Mexican American! I come from the highlands of Oaxaca where the people of the clouds built culture, where the Maya worshiped, and learned form the Zapotec, where we spent our time in counts, and in observations; and not in each other, but in the systems which baffle the Zodiacs, and the aka Astronomers.
Let me tell you a story. The world was dark. It steamed of sulfur, and it lacked in green plants, then the great serpent spilled down the mountains, it did not do anything but scare the peeps.
What it did was create imagination, art, culture, creativity, love, intuition, and it developed the people of the Meso Americas.
Many scientists are trying to understand our culture, the type Diego De Landa burnt.
If any Native American tribe and township is starting from scratch, let me tell you, we all learned how to walk but first we had to crawl.
Absolutely nothing is from where we live, anything from a dental claim, to an insurance annuity is out of State, and in the end that is what makes America Powerful! We cannot live by ourselves in our communities without the help from others from the countryside.
I too am afraid of the bigotry and words learned and obviously stained by the masses. They do not have any identity. Theirs is the thought of racism; yet that is not the point!
The statement is Culture! Can you hear me? Maybe you can, perhaps you cannot, but you will mind someone someday....!
Thank you Nene...
Jesse
Anonymous,
ReplyDeletelet me tell you, I don't like comments without a face, we all have to take a stand. We must show our faces, and sometime walk in the freezing rain besides our usual selves.
Yet I shall answer you. I shall make this exception, and agree with you. Your words are deep, and the concept is real.
You seem to understand the point of this post.
Let me tell you I appreciate your intent, I don't like your hiding, but I do like what you mean.
Perhaps in the future we will stop hiding; We will suit up and show up and not care what cold weather hits our comfort zones.
For that is what this Blog is about. It is not about racism! It is not about isolation and resentment, but about love, life, and art.
I will wait patiently and see the results of this development, and others will also watch as the world agrees to disagree with them.
If they are upset, good! If they fear tomorrow? All the better they have no faith, they have no peace, they do not understand what it is to live in LOVE...
Jesse
PsychClient,
ReplyDeletethank you for taking a stand. It is important for people to understand that people have the right to be WHO they are...!
love,
Jesse
PinkPanthress,
ReplyDeleteI love your words. And this I say without bigotry!
It is true, Native Americans have offered the rest of the world a wealth of knowledge, and many appreciate, and understand that more than most Local Americans do.
love,
Jesse
Jesse,
ReplyDeleteJust saw where you left a comment--sorry i didn't post sooner....I heard about this on the news...The tribes are always being bullied around in the "uptight areas" of the state they always try to push them around and i get soooo tired of the religious nut groups whining all the time...a casino built on tribal lands is the TRIBES' right and their decision...the religious nuts need to mind their own business and let them do as they want...Bring in crime?....whatever..we have several casinos here in w/southwest,oklahoma and there's no more crime than usual...the casinos bring in jobs and gives everyone somewhere to go on weekends other than the bar...lol...
i hate how they always try to bring GOD into fights...I believe in GOD & Jesus and i'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind what the tribe wants to do!I don't view God as an uptight angry person..to me he's laid-back and loves everyone...it's just whiny,bitter religious nut people starting trouble as usual...(yawn)
if the casino does get to be built i'm sure you'll find some of those same people doing all the complaining about this---hiding in the dark corner of the casino gambling & living it up every night!!!....LOL...
best wishes to the Kialegee Tribe!!!
love, julia
i say live... let people live and learn... as long as the first and second true first and second commandments arent broken people should be allowed to try new things do new things and create new things without judgement.
ReplyDeletethis the first commandment... thou shoult love the lord thy God with all your heart soul and mind... and the second is like unto it... thou shoult love thy neighbor as thyself... if only... if only... makes me sad somedays to wake up to a world of such judgement and hate and to see it so often throughout my daily walk. I guess what they say is true... ignorance is bliss...
Julia,
ReplyDeletethank you for your comment, sorry about the lapse in time, I have and always am busy...LOL
Some people don't know that there are HUGE plots of land on which stand these what I like to call warehouse churches, because they don't look like a church but a big square building.
As far as these resentful types of people who do not understand culture, I feel for them; I really do, because one can be uneducated or perhaps enlightened and still will ignore the realities of the wreckage of their past. These kind of people I call bigots, because they know the truth and rebel against the history of Native Americans in the US.
I can accept a person who is ignorant, thus not knowing and merely speaking out of that aspect. But I am watching this from a Mexican American perspective, and it is just sick...
Thank you for the comment again Julia, and yes hurray for the Kialegee Tribal Town!!!
Noreen,
ReplyDeleteI too come from a Christian background, we are to "walk in love", and love our neighbors, to "resist not evil"...
I see the oppression of peoples in this planet of ours as a reality of our human condition. We don't know how to walk in love. To accept other people's afflictions and to not do evil onto others; whether it is with words, or hazing contempt...
I have no connection to the Kialegee Tribal Town, other than they are Native American like Mexican Americans are, only we are half white. Yes the Spanish mostly, but also other European blood lines like the French, and some German who did move to Mexico. Hence Mexican Americans; we look mostly Native American, but like any other assimilate culture, just the regular variety.
Now I have deleted many comments which have come in, with a complete racist tone. Just for the record, I am not a racist, and if you will take anything from this remember it is about culture.
The reality of the next Sixty years in American is going to be this: If you do not understand the people who are different than you, and continue to dislike culture, you along with many others will be the minority, your own anger will keep you from truly walking in love, and resisting and not doing evil...
Well that's enough from this starving artist. Yes, as an artist people listen to us because we can speak our minds because we are artists, but there are some people out there who don't even understand that factor which has been prevalent since the dark ages...LOL
Well you asked my opinion but I don't think you will like it. I certainly don't think it is right to deny anyone to build something because they are Native American...but this isn't a sacred site or museum we are talking about, It's a casino, which is a business. As I pagan I believe in the Wiccan Rede, do what you will and let it harm none. For me, this includes your occupation and bussiness choice as well. Gambling hurts people, period. The fact that it brings in tourism just doesn't make it okay, IMHO. I have known far too many people that have had their lives ruined by gambling. I can certainly understand why the casino is unwanted. The sole purpose of a casino is make money off of others' addiction to winning. Does it attract crime? Statistically I don't have the answer, but I suspect it's true. I know I wouldn't want a casino going up near me, regardless of who was trying to build it.
ReplyDeleteSerenityRaven,
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about the lapse in response darling. I read your critique, and I like it. You took a stand, and you supported your beliefs with your own spiritual beliefs...
I believe most Non Hispanic Americans would rather see Native Americans live in poverty, as most Native Americans do in many parts of Oklahoma.
I know that business is an enterprise, and everything is dependent on it. Sometimes we tolerate liquor stores in our neighborhoods, but the demand for it is real.
We also tolerate the HUGE stores like Walmart, and Office Depot, or perhaps Staples who have pushed the small office supply mom and pop shops out of business.
We see it in our daily society everyday, some businesses we tolerate, and we don't question. Businesses like the lobbyist who have also pushed away the corner family owned stores out of business.
Economics is all about supply and demand, and yes there are many kinds of addicts out there. For example, the technology addicts with their cell phones. Or maybe the food addicts who eat and eat and eat as much as they can everyday, while making our children, and our American Culture fat, and out of shape.
Then there are the Dogma junkies, so sooo many in this nation. Some are dangerous, others do the right thing and feed the homeless, offer health care to the uninsured, others spend camps educating children, and adults in retreats on how to cope with this Global economy.
This world is so complex that we have lost our way in society. Children are falling behind in mathematics, and in Science, and in reading and plain writing.
Oklahoma has the worst teenage pregnancy rate than any other state in the US nation. Science is behind and in last place here in Oklahoma.
People worry too much about outside issues, when they should be contributing to society more and more.
Everyone has the right to make money in this nation, and just as the next person can open a Walmart, and a Target so does the Native American tribe. And it is none of anyone's business, because it is not the Native Americans fault this state is so far behind in Education, and in culture.
So thank you for your unpopular comment, but I must say also, than you even more for revealing yourself to the world....