silver shackle2 - Book notes

I have read a fair number of books over the past years. Took notes on a few and decided some of them might be interesting to other people.. and it be easier to find them for me if put them on the Fort Socs Web Page. Many of the books were very interesting but i just took noted a few things. Some i went more gang busters on, not necessarily a lot better, just me going with the feel. Hoping the notes inspire others to read them or at least think of some of the things i pointed out. A comic style book about Louis Riel was the latest of my reads.... so much more to learn that reading this book pointed me towards.. but not sure if i will, maybe someone reading this might and get back to me some cole note version on what you learn?

Our voice of Fire Brandi Morin

page 206 If we do not heal the growing divisions between people, we will all be ripped asunder along with our wounded planet.

207 We have a long journey ahead and we must equip ourselves with the compass of truth to guide us along the way.

There is an ancient Anishinaabe prophecy about the time of the Seventh Fire:

It is this time that the light skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. One road will be green and lush, and very inviting. The other road will be black and charred, and walking it will cut their feet. In the prophecy, the people decide to take neither road, but instead to turn back, to remember and reclaim the wisdom of those who came before them. If they choose the right road, then the Seventh Fire will light the Eighth and final Fire, an eternal fire of peace, love, brotherhood and sisterhood. If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads, then the destruction which they brought with them in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering and death to all the Earth's people.

The prophesy reminds us that all races have a part to play in determining our future fate, and learning to reconcile our differences may be among the most urgent work of our time. those who will lead the way are t hose of us who have already learned the work of reconciliation from the inside out.

I am mixed blood, carrying the light-skinned bloodlines of my father. I am direct descendant of the Sun Traveller. I carry the bloodlines of the Iroquois and Cree nations through my mother. I carry within me the bloodlines of reconciliation.

Stay Sane in an Insane World Greg Harden p168 Sometimes you have to believe in people before they can believe in themselves. When you build up their confidence and their skills, you create this mindset of excellence.

Bad Cree notes;

211 "Well, that's a good thing, isn't it? that the industry is dyig?" I say.

" I don't think it's dying," Kassidy says, "Just moving. And they don't give a shit about what the leave behind, do they?"

I think about the empty roads leading to old, abandoned well sites, the gutted woods clearcut to make way for their trucks, now closed up and leading to nowhere.

" And all the so-called partnerships oilfield companies made with a bunch of he reserves. Saying they would get people jobs in exchange for access to reserve land. They got the land, sucked it dry, then abandoned it and all the people they made promises to when they couldn't use it anymore," Tracey says.

"Don't start talking about this on Facebook, thought, unless you want everyone in town arguing about it in your comments," Kassidy says.

p237 " We don't know all the damage that was done to the land when people started extracting from it," Auntie Doreen continues

"Greed isn't the only way for a wheetigo to be sustained," Auntie Verna cuts in. " It might have been created by greed, but that's not how it's been surviving."

p238 "It targets people who are vulnerable," auntie Doreen says. "Any kind of bad it can get its hands on."

"We think it works by isolating its victims," mom adds

"The wheetigo is shapechange for a purpose," Auntie Doreen says. "it's how it lures its victims. Like a hunter who learns how to mimic a moose call."

P240 "the wheetigo is like a parasite. It needs a host that's vulnerable, has something for it to feed off. Sabrina was in a bad place after kokum died. the wheetigo might have seen that and latched on."

241 "How do we find it?" Kassidy asks. Atim snorts against her arm.

we don't," Mom says in a hard voice. "We don't go after it. This thing feeds off the helpless and needy, and we are none of those things. We're all together now. we just need to keep being together and it can't touch us."

"We'll all just stay together," Mom says, her voice getting higher. "We have to stay together to stay safe."

250 "When someone is born, they become their own person. Have to be trusted to make their own choices. Parents are supposed to just help when they need it. I've always had a hard time with that part. the letting go part. I'm a bad Cree sometimes."

275 ""We didn't knowit was that wheetigo thing. But we knew it was something bad looking to trap you. No wonder it blocked us from talking."

"It did a pretty good job of making me feel alone."

Creating Together Staged Photography in Community-based Participatory Research (2015)

p52 Health is described as " a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing rather than merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO, 2001, p1). The Ottawa Charter for health Promotion and the Jakarta Declaration reinforce the importance of social conditions for health and well-being. It is also agreed that for the success of health promotion initiatives, concerned people need to be placed at the centre of these projects (WHO, 1986, 1997).

p55 In planning design for social change in marginalized communities, the designer's role involves working with communities to improve people's knowledge, skills, and confidence, while integrating resources that help social inclusion and active participation through collaborative creative inputs (Nieusma, 2004; Oosterlaken, 2009). This process of co-creating artifacts not only initiates a dialogue, but can also lead to new understandings and knowledge generation.

p 71 In the context of restrictive funding structures for social programming established by neoliberal public policies, people experiencing homelessness have increasingly been forced to depend on themselves and each other for survival. Although there has been a great deal of research and writing on homelessness in Toronto in recent years, little attention has been paid to the strengths and resilience of homeless people and their ability to support themselves and each other, create a community, or for a social movement. One of the reasons for this gap can be attributed to charity -based perspectives of homelessness that view women as victims and well-meaning social services as the only solution (Chan, 2004)

100 Warren: Our 'play' together is hard work: "the Individual has to listen on a very deep level (and not simply with the ears), working an openness and vulnerability which allows images, words, feelings and sensations to arise. this listening takes place in the mind, in the body, and in the heart:

** (Maybe the person writing this has less ability than the people they are writing about, it is a relative kind of thing. they are being paid to do some research... often the participants, have paid a price beyond money to learn things they never wanted to, in my opinion/ observation. I used to be paid to play too... and paid a lot of $ to learn what i didn't want when it came to so many things, including working with people being paid to help other people on a professional level)**

p105 Nisha: We had invited Florise to join our ensemble at that time because of her Haitian heritage and desire to use PT (Playback theatre) to support healing in her community. She told stories of Haitai's former wealth of natural resources, of multiple waves of political violence, and of unimaginable environmental degradation. Her perspectives, combined with those of the audience, pushed at the boundaries of what we thought we knew about Haiti and challenged assumptions about Canada's role in the world.

p112 The critical reenactments that I initiated focused on examining the ways in which Jewish cultural narratives and religious ideologies have made it possible to not only ignore the plight of the Palestinian people, but also to create official policies and unofficial actions that exclude, dominate, and oppress them. Furthermore, these dialogic live art performance events were intended to explore the possibility of co=creating new narratives of nonviolent coexistence.

p113 given the current socio-political conditions in Israel/Palestine and the prevailing political will and unquestioning government support of Israel in Canada, the project of envisioning a Palestinian "home beautiful" equal to what the Jewish Home Beautiful community pageant and publication achieved in the 20th century, requires much imagination and creativity.

Adam Piper writes:

I want to call attention to a specific feature of imagination as we ordinarily conceive it. This is that we can imagine not only what actually exists... but also what might have existed in the present or past, or might someday exist in the future... the term modal imagination is intended to remind us of our capacity to envision w hat is possible in addition to what is actual. (1991, p726)

Such an imagining of what is possible is necessarily rooted in the past and the present and while a single person can initiate a new vision, its manifestation requires a collective effort, in the political realm as much as in the artistic.

131 "The act of expression is an act of connection--through it we become positive, active participants in our lives and in our communities." (Rohd, 1998, xix)

theatre and drama initiatives, introduced by the theatre artists, develop community engagement, encourage participation, and enhance appreciation for the art form within and beyond the schools.

p133 Zuppa Circus Carrigan Academy (Halifax)

Zuppa Circus is an ensemble theatre company led by Ben Stone, Susan Leblanc-Crawford, and Alex MacLean, three artists wo develop original performances in collaboration with likeminded individuals from related disiplines. Founded in 1998, the company has developed a unique collaborative process that favours the intuitive over the formulaic and thrives on the play between the imagined and the real.

136 One of the most significant drama initiatives at Cedar Springs had Wolfman-Robichaud introducing ways of using drama to address conflict in school. She met with each class once a week for one hour to explore drama activities designed to raise awareness and provide language (oral and physical) to deal with conflict.

p138 the UBC artists in residence were committed to leading the drama initiatives, and part of their mandate was also to make the work sustainable by mentoring teachers.

P145 Perhaps the simplest explanation for why community art practice has emerged recently is the need for contemporary society to find a space to speak-- to participate in the public sphere in critical dialogue, and not in a manner that is bureaucratized, surveillanced, not about consuming products, and not removed from our embodied reality.... Community is not a static entity "out there, " but is manifested through action--it is practised. (Alibbai, p39)

152 Dreaming forward Other things talk also. Many people here had spirit helpers who spoke to them, and not just bears and wolves, but trees and rocks and water and moss. In order to hear them, a Squamish person would go away from other humans and simply sit still and listen. After days or weeks or even years they would let themselves hear what had been around them the whole time. the sound of the world.

Over a long time the things they heard have become the Squamish language and stories. And recently with so many deaths in our community, much of this has been forgotten by us as a people. But our people remember that we had it once, and know ho important it is to get it back out and learn these things again. what we are trying to do now is teach other people that it is important for them to do this work also and even that it is possible in the first place. (Aaron Nelson Moody, Tawx'sin Yexwulla, personal communication , June, 2000

153 caught myself desiring time away from the herds of people each weekend to simply be silent on the land. became as a much part of my practice as the meeting and greeting of a hundred people each weekend.

p161 The Gestare Art Collective Inquiring Across Time/Space

"The artist in the matrixial dimension is wit(h(ness in compassionate hospitality." (Ettinger, 2005, p706)

p162 we co-write at a distance, connected through technology and conscious intention, catching and at times tangling our threads, weaving our experiences and deepening our understanding of the m/Other --not in isolation but as an energetically vibrating whole.

172 the word compassion comes from the Latin for com: with and pati: to suffer or to experience (Fox, 1979). In Sematic languages, its etymological root is "womb." according to Karen Armstrong (2011), compassion is understood in Buddhism as a commitment to liberate others from grief or suffering. Our Western understanding of compassion has been altered in the English translation and is described as "piteous" or pitiable" in the New Oxford American Dictionary."

p175 social imagination to reinstate and extend and originary compassionate imaginative as an avenue to transform political and environmental crises.

188 As we attend closely to our relationship and to our collaborative practices as artist and researcher, we explore new wonders about the relationship between memory, forgetting, social justice, and health equity.

202In this Canadian context, our investigation into alternative landscape art practices opens social possibilities to reconsider our communal relationships with the land, anticipating the need for change so that more ecological, sustainable interactions emerge in the future.

p211 our intimidation about artmaking may be accounted for by Bordieu's argument (as cited in Clements, 2011) that cultural elitism undermines access to and participation in the arts because the arts have historically functioned as markers of exclusion, highlighting distinction and difference, thus greater involvement actually devalues the arts.

214 The authors concluded that effective collaboration needs to be based on respect and valuing the contributions of all members.

p228 the being focused on a task to complete an assignment tends to negate the time needed for deeper learning (Guthrie et all, 2006). (* like many things.. maybe why REM sleep and other restful/ or physical things are so important? SB

236 The capitalistic reasoning that invades education thus devalues anything that cannot b justified economically and then subsequently assessed via a corresponding competency. This commodified education, according to Lyotard (1984), emphasizes knowledge production and consumption with the goal of increasing rates of exchange. What concerns Lyotard is how such a treatment of knowledge shifts its fundamental nature, arguing that mass production devalues relationships between human beings and the places they dwell.

Okanagan Women' voices Syilx and Settler Writing and Relations 1870's - 1960's

Eliza Jane Swalwell page 14 "is critical of aspects of the Christian non-Syilx culture and emphatically states, "it seems to me the whites are too much bound and limited, too much enslaved by their written creeds and confessions of faith. the Indians are free of that, and consequently they are closer to nature and reality."

Chief Francois, as told by Josephine Shuttleworth

page 39 Tales there were there too, of the merry crickets, who when asked by the ants the reason they never worked said they would rather sing in happiness all summer and sleep in the long, cold winter than be so hurried with living that they couldn't sing a happy song in either season.

Eliza Jane Swalwell page 52 "How much happier than either are those on whose last days shines the brighter hop of the light and immortality revealed by the Gospel." Perhaps he is right: I don't know. You can only live such things. The highest and best things in live cannot be clothed in words.

Conversations with Canadians, Lee Maracle

So many amazing words put together in a beautiful way. I took some notes, but to read the full book will give it better justice. I am sure to hear her in person would be even better.

Page 23 Here is my innocence: I do things much the same way my ancestors did. I learned very early that yelling in the house invites demented spirits in I drive everybody nuts, so I don’t allow it and I don’t do it. When someone yells, I toss them out and immediately smudge out the house.

Page 28 Women once carried that bundle of keeping the backward and forward vision of the nation and transmitting the culture. They carried bundles of management, social organization, and economic distribution that have now become concepts hanging loose between time and space.

Page 30 The world shanghaied comes from the press gangs that kidnapped the men of Shanghai and brought them to Canada to work on the railroads. Their women were not allowed to come with them, so some took Indigienous wives, particularly in BC. China Bar Tunnel is named after the dead Chinese men buried there in the stone and rock after they were killed instead of paid.

Page 46 Now some of our own people are repeating the phrase: “Feminism comes from the outside.” I want to say, “So do Levi’s,” but I bite my tongue and optfor reason, I get why men are doing it. Having only one chief is handy. Not having to deal with women leaders in handy. Actually, it is patriarchy that comes from outside and feminism is its most effective response.

Page 59 The serpent people teach us to think beyond ourselves, to connect wellness to the wellness around us, to connect health to being kind to one another.

(also on this page and page 60 there is a great story about some whales being helped by the Inuit via communication with them via singing)

Page 64 It was also the first time I felt grateful to be born an Indigenous woman. The way forward is always clear to us. Gather together, make a plan, and create the art that will move the plan and go forward= leave no one behind.

Page 66 We heal through song and dance. We express our deepest emotions and most powerful spirit through song and dance. We become ourselves through song and dance. We died so much during the cultural prohibition days, when our singing and dancing were banned.

Page 67 It took a number of conversations with individual Canadians to get them to understand that a Sto:lo is as much like and Ojibway as a Frenchman is like a Russian.

Page 109 No wealth existed simply for its acquisition.

Page 111 The education of children is biased toward reading and writing rather than remembering.

Page 129 This leads to all kinds of fallacious thinking: Career is more important that social responsibility, economic development is about jobs and is more important than the environment, etc

Page 148 Cherie Dimaline in Red Rooms creates a whole new way of telling a series of interconnected short stories about people who are disconnected. This is the work of women, to reconnect the disconnected.

Page 149 This is the foundation of Dalit: respect for women, the centrality of women, and the brilliance of layered texts, wordplay, and drama, which will lead us to good relations, equitable sharing arrangements between men and women. I love history as much as the next person, but I cannot love the displacement of women. Our societies were sharing societies; no one was left out. In the stories and poetry and plays of the above, there is and insistence on sharing space and time. I cannot participate in any gathering in which women are not accorded the space and time to present by those who would elevate a man to a greater space and a greater amount of time. This is true for me as an artist and as a si-yam of my people.

Page 150 Our knowledge keepers were trained to be rememberers. They were educated to recall the significant in what is said or done. Others, thinkers, were trained to examine the action and assure that the direction the nation took in responding to an event did not lead to a divergence from the original path.

Page 157 But that is the ordinariness of having “art as a way of life.” It helps you to take the next step in the journey across the stone-filled path that is your life. Humans need and deserve something more. It is the kind of “When all else fails, sing; when you are tired dance: and song and dance will bring you through: but that is existence survival, it is not full living. We also need to see our lives danced and sung. We need to create the time and space in which our most talented crafters of song and dance can story up the heroic, significant moments of our history and we need to see our lives danced before us in that spectacular and uplifting way that has always been a part of our lives.

Page 160 A melancholy persists I the individual who has never witnessed themselves through the extraordinary art of their most talented citizens.

Winona LaDuke Chronicles Stories from the Front Lines in the Battle for Environmental Justice

Pg 19 /20 takes 1000,000,000 tons of material to get 1.6 tons of copper {at NorthMet Project ore reserve}

The NorthMet mine would consume 47.63 trillion btu over the course of it's lifetime. That amounts to a lot of power and a lot of coal burned to produce that power and a polluted landscape left behind, all because Glencore Polymet see a way to make money selling copper to China, regardless of what Full Cost Accounting analysis shows the real true costs to be. We will be stuck with those costs long after PolyMet and Glencore have moved on.

P22 { regarding proposed coal mine by Arch Coal in Montana} 170 Cheyenne came out to oppose the mine and the railroad. “We believe our community will bear the brunt of the negative impacts from the Otter Creek mine. Sacrificing the land, water, and animal, and plant life for mining and money is not worth what our ancestors fought and gave their life,” Tom Mexican Cheyenne explained in the testimony. “(we are)... worried about the crime, accidents, drugs and other social issues that come along with boomtowns that our Tribe is not equipped to handle. We are being asked to deal with this so a transnational corporation can make billions of dollars shipping coal to Asia.”

P 24 Full Cost Accounting. that is what I have heard it called, where pollution project creates as well as the foregone opportunities lost are weighed in the analysis. I prefer, the term Indigenous Economics. I prefer the idea that not all has a price tag attached to it, and that stories of place stay alive with that place and those people.

26 It was a long time ago that the Crow People came from Spirit Lake. They emerged to the surface of the Earth from deep in the waters. They were known as the Hidatsa people, and lived for a millennia or more on the banks of the Missouri River. They built one of the most complex agriculture and trade systems in the northern hemisphere with their creativity and their diligence. Hundreds of varieties of corn, pumpkins, squash, tobacco, berries—gifts to a people. And the buffalo—50 million or so American bison—graced the region, The land was good, as was the life.

Ecosystems, species and cultures collide and change. The horse transformed people and cultures, and so it did for the Hidatas and Crow people. The horse changed how the people were able to hunt—from buffalo jumps, from which a carefully crafted hunt could food for months to the quick and agile movement of a horse culture. The Crow transformed. They left their life on the Missouri, moving west to the Big Horn Mountains. They escaped some of what was to come to the Hidatsas, the plagues of smallpox and later the plagues of agricultural dams which flooded a people and a history.

The Absaalooka are the People of the Big-beaked Blackbird—that is how they got their name, the Crow. The River Crow and the Mountain Crow all of them came to live in the Big Horns, becoming a culture made by the land, made by the horse, and made by the creator.

P31 Even China has been dramatically increasing its use of renewables and recently called for the closing of thousands of small coal mines by 2015. Perhaps most telling, Goldman Sachs recently stated that investment in coal infrastructure is a “risky bet and could create stranded assets.”

P38 Death by lethal injection

Let’s start with the problem of water. Fracking involves the use of immense amounts of water- hundreds of millions of gallons per well. One company, Southwest Energy Resources, told reporters that what is involved in fracking is basic chemicals you could find in your house.

That would be –it seems—if you were running a meth lab. Water used by fracking companies is contaminated with over 600 toxins and carcinogens. Those chemicals are considered trade secrets and are not subjected to scrutingy. This has become a bit of a problem. Simply stated: once water has been used in fracking, it is no longer living water. It is dead and it is lethal.

P39/40 “every single day there isa more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas, which is flared away. That’s enough to heat half a million homes. That’s as much carbon dioxide emitted as 300,000 cars. That’s crazy.“ Kandi Mossett

There is twice as much flaring on the reservation as off the reservation. That’s to say that the lack of infrastructure has been surpassed by the speed of extraction. Natural gas burned in flaring is a byproduct of crude oil. Without enough pipelines to transport the gas at a state level, one-third of what's released each day—wort $1.4 million –goes up in smoke. Tribal citizens say as much as 70% of gas from wells on the reservation is flared.

Ironically, last winter—as Debbie Dogskin on the nearby Standing Rock reservation froze to death in the polar vortex and a nationwide propane shortage set in—the Bakken fields flared gas, rich in propane.

P41 “a huge portion of the chemicals used in the fracking industry are protected as trademark secrets. This becomes important because when an active oil and gas well pad has an on=site issue, such as a blow out, or spraying chemicals in communities or elsewhere, where there are animals or humans, the victims would not know the nature of the chemical contamination and this puts both the patient and the doctor in jeopardy.”

P42 In 2011, the State collects more than $60 million in taxes from energy development on the reservation, but spent less than $2 million for infrastructure on the Reservation,” Hall testified at a federal hearing.

p43 The Fort Berthold Tribe has celebrated a banner year for oil production, despite a record number of spills, incidents and dirty radioactive frack filter “socks” found in municipal waste, road sides and on an allottees land. “Some kids found some and were playing with them, radioactive frack socks,” Mossett said.

P46 Buying Navajo Mine and renewing leases for NGS will only condemn our children to a life-sentence of pollution and a weak economy,” says activist Kim Smith. “We should focus on creating a stronger sustainable economy rather than spending thousands to keep these mines and power plants going. If these industries took care of us the way they take care of cities like Phoenix, Navajos would no longer be held economic hostages.”

pa48 It is the only source of drinking water for 50 000 Natie people and 14 communities on Black Mesa. It is more than 1000 ft deep an it provides some of the cleanest water in the Southwest when it emerges as seeps on the surface. the aquifer as provided this life giving water for thousands of years.

As Nicole Horseherder explains, "From 1971 to 2005, the coal industry removed water from the Navajo Aquifer at the rate of 4,000-6000 acre feet a year, more tahn three times the aquifer's known ability to recharge. Since 2005, teh Peabody mining company has decreased its use to less than 2,000 acre feet a year, but that is still more than 13 million gallons a year for an area that gets less than 8 inches of annual rainfall."

P 62 "Proposals are under consideration to raise the Shasta Dam water levels from 6.a5 to 18.5 ft. How do they justify flooding the Winemem Wintu people out twice?" Caleen asks "They still haven't fulfilled the 1941 Act of Congress that said they are to provide like lands and pay for all the allotment and communal lands... And the Shast Dam is still not paid for by the public. "

p64 "It's not like a church where you have everything in one p lace. We could describe how sacred sites are the teachers... We don't want the American dream... We want our prayer rocks." Calleen Sisk, Weinnemem Wintu

P76 Those gigantic specialized trucks ill carry monstrous pieces of mining equipment imported from Korea up to the Tar Sands project, where oil is being extracted from a mammoth pit by blasting saturated sand wit steam. It is already the largest and most destructive industrial project in history, and those trucks could be shuttling supplies up there for the next 50 years.

P78 For the past two years, oil companies have been courting transportation and state authorities in Idaho and Montana, promising road expansion and a boom of economic development in jobs all along the route. A closer look suggests, however, that this "boom" may not be audible. The trucks will not be stopping at the usual tourist desigantions on the heritage road, and the drivers will not be local people. Road expansions will undoubtedly create jobs for some Nimiipuu people (a few were hired this past year for the first expansion), but Tribal Employment Rights office quotas may have already been fulfilled, and the loss of income from tourism will outweigh the benefits to the community,. I It is also worth noting that tourists-- who pump $500 million into the area each year-- are unlikely to care for the change in scenery the heavy Haultrucks will bring to Highway 12.

Nevertheless, the Idaho Department of Transportation hearing processes have been fast -tracked in an effort to screen the project from public scrutiny. In those hearings, industry executives have often represented the project as merely a small, interim excursion through this road and that, rather than the massive and log=lasting movement of industrial oil machinery that the project actually calls for.

p92 Desmond Tutu and Me

"Climate change is the moral struggle that will define humanity this century. I hope you will find yourslef on the right side of this struggle, the one which will say 'no' to the pipelines and the carbon." Archbishop Desmond Tutu, June 1, 2014

p106 When our family went to visit friends at taos Pueblo, we were told of the Quiet Time.

Taos Pueblo in northern new Mexico is a World heritage site; a 1000 year old village , all off- grid, no running water, old school. Classic, North American style. the traditional people at that village go into the Pueblo for about a month in December and January, and go off the grid, so to speak. they heat and cook with wood, use their outhouses, and haul water from the springs. they live with no cell phones, no television, and then they remember who they are.

I try the Quiet time. I look at the fire in my house. I rankle at the amount of energy I consume in my own house, albeit solar and wood are two components of my energy scheme. I know that each gadget uses power, that leaving all that stuff plugged in means that there's a "ghost load' in the outlet, and that someone-- probably out in North Dakota—isliving next to a big, dirty coal-fired generator just so that I keep it all going.

p107 We are not necessarily happier for it. On a worldwide scale, new indicators of happiness and wll-being are being forwarded by some of "least developed countries" in the world, who indeed, say that they are happier than Americans. Bhutan (a Himalayan nation of around 750,000.. think North Dakota), instituted a Gross National Happiness Index, instead of Gross Domestic Product.

p108/109 Americans consume more psychotropic drugs than any country in the world (anti-depressants and sleeping pills for instance) and --in general-- we also consumetoo much food. Around a third of our population is overweight. Finally, we sop. Some say we shop to appease our pain, or in order to create that momentary bliss of 'retail therapy."

Four decades ago, the inking of Gross National Product and happiness was questioned by Robert Kennedy in a speech delivered at the University of Kansas. "too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things," he said.

{{{ so much of this is good, but I will be lazy and try to find a link to the actual speech and the last paragraph}}}

"The GNP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

He could have been from taos Pueblo, really.

I have put myself on a fosil fuels diet. And in this Quiet Time, I pledge to happiness in 2015.

p109 What's up? The North Dakota Department of Health is considering increasing the amount of radioacive materials put in landfills by a factor of 1000% or from 5 pico curies per liter to 50. That would hep the fracking industry out tremendously, because most of those fracking wastes and other cool stuff-27 tons of it a day are coming in at 47 pico curies per liter, and we've and illegal dumping problem. So, lets just make it a non problem?

p112 I think it hurts us. We fix less, buy more. I could say it hurts the planet, the environment and charismatic mega fauna like, well, gorillas in the Congo (think Blood Coltan for cellphones, smart bombs and consumer electronics)

Coltan is a "conflict" mineral ore that is mostly found in the Congo, where it is mined and sold by militia groups and criminal gangs, wo use a lot of forced labor, including as much as 30% of area school children, to dig it out of the ground.

We have become a people who lack agency who buy more things that we know will go to the dump, who have people take care of us, and that's getting to be a problem in terms of our society.

p113 And then there's the social production of waste: prisons. We've got more prisoners per capita than any country in the world. Of the 9 million prisoners in the world some 2.2 million are in the US and that's a huge growth industry as well. And that's a bad idea in my humble opinion.

116 remorse and gratitude

these are two fundamental and essential emotions which allow us to live well (I could say "function in society", but that seems too clinical); Remorse : to feel sorry, to express regret (minjinawezid[he is regretful). And, gratitude; to be grateful (migwechiwendam, to be thankful. Remorse and gratitude.

We need these feelings and emotions, and we need to be able to express them. Then we are able to have empathy for other beings, and we are able to live with more joy. I have realized that my own children at times lack these emotions. I have witnessed my own teenage sons-- and some of my other children at times-- being unable to say that they are sorry, or not accepting or realizing that their own self- centered or mean behavior effects many other people, and when questioned or confronted, the discussion is rejected.

P118 in fact, the US Army has awarded an astonishing 425 Congressional Medals of Honor over the years for killing American Indians on American soil.

p119 Attorneys for both sides have said that if Chevron apologized, its legal liability of $18 billion would have been cut to $9.5 billion."

The company's position: " Chevron does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law." Corporations do not feel remorse.

And, according to business journals, "Investors seem not to believe that the award, the second- largest environmental damages award ever imposed on an oil company (after the $20 billion compensation for victims of the Gulf of Mexico spill agreed by BP)-- will (ever) be paid. " Nice to know.

There we go. That's what is happening in Ecuador now; but after watching a number of US corporations declare bankruptcy and then re-organize rather than pay these fines, I might be a bit concerned. I might be really concerned if I lived in North Dakota. Take a look at the track record, I'd say.

p120 "Lacrosse was traditionally used as a means of healing between parties when hurtful conflicts were imminent," says Faith Spotted Eagle of the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. "History tells of a Yankton Chief, Waanatan, who oversaw a game that lasted several days, eventually leading to the settling of a conflict between camps. Many of our communities plagued by violence would benefit from this ancient way of resolving conflicts and pursuing healing. "

Sid Jamieson, a mohawk (of the Iroquois Nation), is a former Bucknell University lacrosse coach. "In the sport's earliest days, players would only step on the field if the clan mothers deemed they were pure in spirit enough to earn the honor," says Sid. " The game was played ferociously. There wasn't any ill feelings about that, because the game was meant to be played rigorously, with fairness and all-out effort."

p124 There have been many other achievements as well. Maori language knowledge has risen from around 3 % to almost 100% and it's estimated that at least 30% of Maoris are fluent speakers. There are over 100 language immersion schools, and some 50 tribal communities of Maoris, with various community development corporations, and a huge Maori media empire (radio, print and television).

125 There are around 700,000 Maori in New Zealand (representing maybe one fifth of the population). Of the 66 million acres in the country, the Maori have 3 million acres of communally -held land.

The Maori Party was founded in 2004 with this mission:

"The Maori Party is born o the dreams and aspirations of tangata whenua to achieve self-determination for whanau, apu and iwi within their own land; to speak with a strong, independent and united voice; and to live according to kaupapa handed down by our ancestors. The vison for the Maori Party will be based on these aspirations, for they speak to us of whanau whose wairua is strong and vibrant; who have fully developed their spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical well- being; and who are confident, secure and proactive in all aspects of the environmental, social, cultural, economic and political life of this great country of ours."

p126 Hone Harawira is still an uncompromising leader. Here are some of his candid thoughts on political activism, on working within the system and on meeting the challenges of representing rednecks:'

On compromise: Compromise your strategies, not your principles. Be bold in your positions. When governments say, ' Maori need to be realistic'. What they are really saying is 'No". But that shouldn't make us afraid to say what our people want, and commit ourselves to doing our best to achieve that. If we are not successful, don't let it be because we let somebody else stop us from daring to succeed."

On the importance of dedicated Indigenous seats in Parliament or Congress: "At that level it's aboaut learning the skills of macro management, rather than bullshittng yourself that you're part of government because the white boys will kick you out."

On literacy: "The Maori people drafted a declaration of independence in 1835. Five years later, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, recognizing Maori sovereignty rights to natural resources and land. //At taht time, the Maori were more literate than the Pakeha, the non=native settlers. The treaties were written in Maori, and interpreted in Maori for the people. Today, 100% of the Maori is largely bilingual, while perhaps 10% of the rest of the New Zealand population is bilingual. Maori is one of two official languages of New Zealand--it's Maori and sign language. "On Indigenous People working in mainstream politics: "You can get knowledge anywhere, even from the enemy. If we're talking about sovereignty and we want to run a country, we have to know how to manage a a country. T here are concessions to be made, but substantive change doesn't come through national politics. Not unless your leadership is courageous."

Comparing Native Americans in political office with Maori politicians: "Your energy is spent trying to placate people you don't like, like rednecks in South Dakota. I'd rather represent my tumultuous relations in the five reservations. I'd be happier to represent them than the people of Rapid City. I see that Maori people who hold office with white parities are basically ignored. They are trotted out to do a speech or a performance and then kicked out of the room when the decisions are made. I think we should spend more time building capacity within, rather than externalizing that. "

On the people who have inspired him: "Mohammed Ali Nelson Mandela, Huey Newton and the Māori people-- Sid Jackson Maori Marsden, my mom and my wife, Hilda. When I was young, the heroes-- in terms of change for people of color were Black. And they were so far off the planet because of what they were saying, you couldn't help say, 'That was cool!' Ali had that going for him-- he was really articulate and if anyone didn't agree, he could smash them."

on the future battles: "Maori politics remains an uphill battle to gain more political power at all levels, from grassroots to Parliament. The politics of poverty remains significant in Aotearoa, as well as in the U.S., as increasing numbers of people fall into more desperate economic situations."

pg130 Remembering Jancita Eagle Deer

"She worked for that one governor, you know, he did all those bad things. Nothing stuck to him."

This morning I awoke thinking of Jancita Eagle Deer. I am sure she is watching us, from the other side, the side of the Spirits. She is watching us, from the other side, the side of the Spirits. She is watching as Congress debates the Violence Against Women Act, and hoping someone remembers her.

Jancita was a Lakota woman from the Rosebud reservation. In 1974, she testified that William Janklow (her legal guardian as a child) had raped her on a ride home from babysitting for the Janklow family. The incident had occurred in 1967, when she was 15 years old.

Jancita Eagle Deer was killed by a hit and run driver near Aurora, Nebraska while outside of a vehicle on April 4, 1975. She had been apparently walking in the middle of the highway when she was hit. The circumstances were mysterious. She was killed only a few months after she had testified against William Janklow in Rosebud Tribal Court, over 200 miles away from her home.

132 In contrast, Native people are prosecuted under both tribal and nontribal law, and often constitute a disproportionately higher percentage of the prison population. In short, Native people are subject to the laws of a different political entity, but non=Native criminals find themselves without legal repercussions in Indian Country. Tribal courts can't reach them, and they know it.

p134 In Praise of the leadership of Indigenous women (for Vandana Shiva) "A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then, it is finished no matter how brave its warriors or how strong their weapons." Cheyenne proverb

Resistance_ Emerges in the Place where the First World meets the Third World in the North in the winter of 2012, Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario drew the world's attention when she went on a hunger strike in front of the Candian capital in Ottawa, Ontario. Spence, a modest woman, helped inspire an international movement called Idle No More, which drew attention to Canada's hyperaggressive resource extraction era, and to the Harper /administration's aggressive violations of the human rights of Indigenous peoples, and the destruction of the Earth.

Chief Theresa Spence is the leader of Attawapiskat First Nation--a very remote Cree community from James Bay, Ontario, which lies at the southern end of Hudson Bay.

p137 The Colonization Model and the Manufacturing of Consent

"The intent is hyper-acceleration of resource extraction and development, and these are on Indigenous territories, and the way to accelerate that process is to create legislation, and to have that legislation part of the instrument though which poverty is utilized. This is the old colonial model, which is having the veneer of consent. It is to manufacture it. To manufacture poverty and then manufacture consent." Russ Diabo

The colonial model is well known, time- tested extensively.

The Steven Harper government-- the present government of the settler/ colonizer of Canada-- did what all prior Canadian governments have done, and has done it more aggressively. The Harper government deprives people of the basics of a dignified life: Running water, critical infrastructure, stable health and food security.

Canada --like its American counterpart-- does this by systemically appropriating the resources of Indigenous communities, militarizing those communities, bringing in new para-militaries to the borers of those communities, insuring long-term health instability in those communities, draining intellectual capital from those communities (through educational and financial institutions) and never investing in infrastructure. Then, they offer the community only one choice.

That choice is embedded in a series of laws and way-too-friendly courts and gun-barrel diplomacy that supports the intensification of resource extraction. And, it turns out that what Canada does in Canada to Native people is what Canadian corporations do around the world, perhaps having learned well from their neighbor to the south.

140 'when Indigenous peoples oppose the destruction of our ecosystems. We get challenged as people who are saying, 'Let's go back to the stone age,'" Caleen Sisk, Winnnemem Wintu chief tells me. "The fact is that these guys with their extraction and pollution will put us (back) before the Stone /age. We won't even be able to eat..."

Which is to say, there is a monetary economy and then there is an economy based on clean air, clean water, and food, or quality of life.

Fossil fuel extraction practices illustrate the worst of addiction and overconsumption:

141Pamela Paimeta, a spokesperson for Idle No More in Canada, talks about the origin of the movement, which sprang from Canada's violations of basic human rights, in which the Harper government gutted laws which would protect indigenous communities. His administration launched an economic war against these same communities if they would not sign mining agreements by holding out basic transfer benefits for food, education, housing and health and then dismantling the environmental laws of that country, in an infamous bill called C 45.

C-45 passed at the end of 2012. that bill and a series of related bills removed roadblocks n the legislative and regulatory arena within this First World country for the direct benefit of mining corporations.

Paimeta--a legal scholar-- points out that treaty rights and the rights of Indigenous nations are essential for all Canadians to support, (despite the teaching and implementation of the construct of white privilege)and urges the larger community to see what is occurring across the country as a reality check.

"The first Nations are the last best hope that Canadians have for protecting land for food and clean water for the future-- not just for our people, but for Canadians as well. So this county falls or survives on whether they acknowledge, or recognize and implement, those aboriginal and treaty rights. So they need to stand with us and protect what is essential."-- Pamel Paimeta

p145 We are "digested" (as the root of colonization is the same as "colon," yep), and in that digestion we come to emulate the colonizer. That is, we come to emulate the mindset of the colonizer.

There is a good argument to be made, however, that the status of Native men also diminishes with colonization, particularly as we are denied access to our lands, our waters, our food, and our ceremonies. It is a process of colonization, and the Indigenous movement is, therefore, a process of decolonization.

What I know is that the hierarchy of colonization finds it easiest to deal with a few appointed leaders, or those who meet the approval of the federal government or the Candian government, perhaps. And a kit if decisions are made by those individuals--often after a good deal of indoctrination, disinformation, coerced "acceptance" of policies, and intrusions of gun-barrel diplomacy imposed on Native communities.

Some of this has been reflected in the militarization of Indian Country, which, it turns out, is heavily militarized, as old cavalry bases are turned into ne weapons training centers, and more and more of our people have been pulled into the US military until we "enjoy" the highest rate of enlistment of any population in North /America. They still test the most lethal weapons on our lands, and continue to take our lands for more military actions.

p151 The Cree and Dene people, who have lived in their traditional territories for millennia, have seen more than 80% of their traditional territory, their lands, rivers and lakes made inaccessible due to tar sands expansion. Although billions of dollars of investments and resources have passed through their lands, what trickles down to the people has been overall ruin and devastation. Corporations like SunCor, TransCanada and Enbridge have been emboldened in their unaccountability to the First Nations citizens of Canada by the Harper government, which has sanctioned a full-scale assault on vast reaches of the Athabascan River system.

p154 Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist.

Opposition to the Keystone L pipeline has many faces, from ranchers in Nebraska and Texas, wh9o reject eminent domain takings of their land for a pipeline right of way, to the Lakota nation, which walked out of State Department meetings in a show of firm opposition to the pipeline. All of them are facing a pipeline owned by TransCanada, a Canadian Corporation.

p 155 The Alberta Tar Sands and the Keystone XL pipeline amount to a criminal assault on our Mother Earth. We are witnessing the poisoning of an enter ecosystem and of the life that will depend upon it for generations to come. The wastage of clean water to steam out the bitumen and move it to market has damaged manybe beyond repair the ecosystem of the northern Athabascan River water basin as well as the boreal forest.

160 What Underdevelopment Looks Like

The reality is that 200 years of Candian development has left underfunded First Nation economies. Canadian mining and forestry have essentially stripped Aboriginal resources for a paltry sum.. Today, many of Canada's 617 first nations live in Third World conditions.

p163 Moonias klooks at development in the oil sands and hears about the inedible fish and the poisoned Athabasca River. He vows never to let anything like that happen to the 'Albany and Ogoki rivers that flow through the muskeg and meet at Marten Falls.

"It's not only fish, it's the animal kingdom. It's not only us, it's everybody. It's the planet. You can't jump )with) a careless plunge into development. YOu have to know what you're doing to your future. "-- Chief Eli Moonias, Marten Falls First Nation

p164 It is the power of informed Indigenous peoples with access, for the first time, to a way to break their isolation: electronic media and smart phones. The Movement seems to be taking strong root from eastern Canada's Burnt Church to northern Saskatchewan. What seems clear is that Native people have learned that consent cannot be manufactured by federal threats, and the Harper government may have met its match in a grassroots movement sweeping the country.

o187 The Sandpiper project was announced with a very short timeline and with only a few public meetings in the plan. There was no public meeting held on the White Earth reservation, which specifically requested one, despite the tribe's specific request, which was totally reasonable since the pipeline crosses the reservation.

p188 Willis Mattison "This defiance of citizen's right to be heard on numerous occasions... this defiance of citizen's right to be heard on the part of government agencies no only violates First Amendment rights but works to destroy the general public's trust in fair and equal treatment under the laws that govern us as a people".

p189 There are few places in the world with the wealth of the North. One fifth of the worlds' fresh water lies in the Great Lakes. Oil and water do not mix. There is wildlife, a fishery worth hundreds of millions of dollars, tourism, and wild rice.

p190 "We are not protesters, we are protectors,"Dahl replies

p198 Debbie Dogskin, a Lakota woman on the Standing Rock reservation froze to death in February, when she couldn't pay her skyrocketing propane bills. Her propane ran ou. Ironically, she lived about a hundred miles from the Bakken oil fields where they flare off gas, they've got so much

p220 "She insisted he only drink. This was a really bad idea, since it didn't relieve his stress and made him angrier and more violent. He would start looking for something to focus his anger on as he got drunk, which would almost always be one of his stepchildren. While drunk, he lost all sense of how hard or long he would beat us. When he was high, I don't think he ever hit us at all. The law as it stands has probably put many children and spouses in this position..." anonymous interview.

We alter our consciousness because of many things: the pain of historic trauma, boredom, lack of cultural and community strength, and because we like it. The root causes of our drive need to be changed; that is long term work and healing. We need solutions to our problems., and we all know that drinking a six pack or smoking a bowl is not going to make your life better. It might help you forget for a few hours, but we have to change our communities and ourselves.

28% of babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) in Minnesota are born to Native Americans, even though Native Americans make up only about two percent of the state's population

It is extremely rare to see kids who are chronically using pot doing well in school." Dr. Brett Neinebar, a family and emergency ward physician near Brainerd Minnesota, told me. It might have to do with this neurotransmitter called dopamine. "Dopamine is the neuro transmitter which is associated with the rewards center of your brain. Marijuana use really stamps out the dopamine."

A new medical study quantifies this. "This study suggests that even light to moderated recreational marijuana use can cause changes in brain anatomy," said Carl Lupica, PhD, at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

P225 Hard Rain is Gonna Fall: GMOS Organics, and our Harvests.

"When it rains in Chicago it rains Atrazine, when it ranis in Washinton DC it rains Atrazine..."

Anthony Suau Three Revelations:

One; The Chinese military no longer serves genetically modified foods to military personnel.

Two: Organic farmers in Illinois produced yields equal to industrial farmers in this years' corn harvest, around 220 bushels per acre, with 45% less energy use.

Three: Organic farmers receive dour times as much for their crops than conventional farmers.

p226 (Atrizine) was banned in the European Union because of ubiquitous and unpreventable waster contamination.

USDA scientists found Atrazine residues in 87.9% of the drinking water tested in 2012

p139 "one of the things that I think Native people recognize and have passed down clturally is that you need to have human beings within food production ecosystems for all of those reasons-- safety, quality, an relationship with yoru food. The principles of safe food are indigenous and inherent in Native communities," Pati Martinson of the Taos County Community Development Corporation, a local food hub, tells the reporter from Indian Country Today.

p247 "For all those who honor and defend those people who still seek in the wisdom of the Indian way... " Peter Matthiesson, from the dedication of In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

p248 I remember Peter from1980, when he had come to Indian Country, to the Navajo nation, where I was working on opposing uranium mining expansion proposals in an arid land already suffering from groundwater contamination. Here he saw a way of life challenged by health issues brought on by indiscriminate radiation contamination and an economic poverty forced upon an otherwise self-sufficient people.

p249 In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is perhaps the most complete story (told in Matthiesson's style) of the political and social history of Lakota people in the COINTELPRO era; of the conflict between Lakota resistance and the state's institutions; of the FBI working in league with armed paramilitary groups; and , of what was to become an all-out battle for survival for these Native people.

COINTELLPRO was the acronym for the FBI's 1960's Counterintelligence Program, which was a secret operation used "to monitor, manipulate and disrupt social and political movements in the United States. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panthers, anti=Vietnam War activists, and the American Indian Movement were among the program's targets," Democracy Now reported.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is a masterful chronicle, written by someone who initially knew very little (or what dribbles an American education can provide you) on Native history and current events.

The book's social and political weight =having been written by such a renowned author-- brought immense legal wrath upon Peter, and he withstood it for nearly a decade.

p262 In his life and in his passing, I remember Hugo Chavez as a brave and generous man to Native an poor people. I never had a chance to meet President Chavez, but I certainly benefited from his life and his example; many others have also.

"We must recognize that we have hit bottom, that the war became inhuman, and it dehumanize us," Juan Manuel Santos, President of Columbia, July 26, 2013.

"The roots of war and violence go deep, into the earth herself. As an indigenous woman, I wish to simply state that until we make peace with earth, there will be no peace in the human community." Ingrid Washinawatok El Issa

p263 She is also known in her death. The FARC kidnapped Ingrid when she left the U'wa territory, on her way home. There she joined the U'wa, who were protecting their land from Occidental Petroleum and creating an Indigenous education system. She is missed always.

Ingrid and her companions understood well the dangers they were facing.

P269 That the death of Osama bin Laden was relayed with the words 'Geronimo EKIA (enemy killed in action)" prompted a din of protest in the halls of Congress.

Harlan Geronimo, a great -grandson of Apache chief Geronimo and an Army veteran of two tours in Vietnam, asked for a formal apology. He called the Pentagon's decision to use the code name Geronimo a "grievous insult."

It is an iconic moment in history. A hundred years after Geronimo's death at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he died after being held for 27 years (@@ my bold and italics : SS ) as a prisoner of war-- because he was Apache—this great patriot is accorded little peace.

The analogy, from a military perspective, is interesting. more than 5,500 military personnel were engaged in a 13-year pursuit of the Apache chief. He traveled with his community, including 35 men and 108 women and children , who in the end surrendered in exhaustion and were met with promises that were never fulfilled. It was one of the most expensive and shameful of the Indian Wars.

Geronimo was a true patriot, his battles were in defense of his land, and he was a hero.

p280 However, historically, "the transfer of admirative control from one federal agency to another is categorically excluded from environmental review due to the fact that this type of action normally does not have an effect on an individual or the environment." This loophole means that if and when we get land back, it may very well be contaminated with whatever the military left behind.

(unexploded)ordnances on formerly used defense installations probably contaminated 20-25 million acres in the United States and the number could be as high as 50 million acres. Sadly, no one can give us an accurate appraisal of the problem. What we do know is at the current rate of s pending it will take centuries , maybe even thousands of years or more, to return this land to safe and productive use. Some may be so damaged; we may not attempt to clean it up. —Blumenauer, quoted in the Treadmill of Destruction.

P285 The Price tag of the US Military's impact

Blowing things up is the military's strong suit, not cleaning p after itself. Of the whopping federal defense budget of 664 billion (2010) only a tiny fraction will be spent on cleanup and resolving its impacts on the environment either locally or globally.

P286 We are the people who have the opportunity to make a difference. In this book, we've provided some useful information on how and why it is incumbent upon us to look critically at the military- a daunting force in the world, and a daunting force in Native America- and consider our alternatives, consider our relationships and to reconsider how we might change our collective paths and transform the role of the Us military on the Land and among the People. '

It is vital to understand the differences between the use of the military in wars fought to sustain Empire, to maintain an iron grip on populations, land and resources taken as a continuation of the notion of Manifest Destiny, and the use of the military as Ogichidaag, to protect the People and the Land, to defend Mother Earth from those who would destroy her.

p 287 For the community, it is important to prepare for those who will return to you from military service, to understand fully the scope of the problems that await you, recognizing that more than 20 percent of your veterans will need some form of intensive therapy, perhaps for the rest of their lives, and to meet them and their needs proactively.

For the nation, it is important to develop strategies where military resources are increasingly used for peaceful purposes, perhaps none more crucial as elements of true strategic long-term homeland security than achieving sustainable energy Independence and food security, and in removing the toxins that already poison the land and the people the water and the air we breathe.

Trauma as medicine by Sarah-Kelly

Page 88 To heal trauma, we must be our own barometer for emotional expression. We are called to trust what we feel, even when that feeling is different from what we think we should feel or what we assume others think we should feel. It is the heart, not the mind, that must lead the way to express what is within.

Emotions have no expiry date. They do not go away when unaddressed; instead, they fester and poison us. Feelings are energy that transforms through communication. Communication is a synonym in this instance for movement and expression. The tools are verbalizing, writing, physical movement, art, music, ceremony, or prayer. These acts propel you forward by drawing you deeper.

Page 100 Fear wants to drive us into the future of potential outcomes and situations beyond our control and respond to them now, even when they have not happened. Using your intuition to its fullest capacity means being aware of what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, and also what your energy body is telling you in the moment. Then you use your rational mind to differentiate between the idea of what might happen and what is actually happening. This is where you stop and notice if there truly is a lion on your tail chasing you down, or if you have gotten lost in an old story about a lion.

Page 117 “Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow—it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.” Shakti Gawain

The process of digesting trauma into new growth and letting go of what we can no longer use. It’s an essential step of healing.

Page 118 This is the act of metabolizing our suffering: Digesting the experience, assimilating the nutrients, and composting the waste.

Our bodies store the emotional, mental, and spiritual information we encounter, and energy cords are connected to certain parts of our bodies.

Page 157 The truth is, for someone to defile, demean, and degrade another to the point that they take this person’s life, they have likely been at the receiving end of defilement and degradation. A significant act of violence does not randomly occur one day. It probably has roots in past experiences of feeling diminished and unlovable, and likely of being harmed by those in power, whether that be authority figures, parents, or a racist society. We know that hurt kids hurt kids, and they grow up to be wounded adults who hurt adults.

Page168 Of course the residential school system didn’t work. The children didn’t fit into the overculture when they left the schools. The unresolved childhood trauma and abuse from the schools caused addiction, violence, and more cycles of abuse. Most were distanced from their culture and had no healthy outlet to recover. There was no access to resources or support.

The “sixties scoop brought the next wave of trauma. By now, whole generations had grown up in residential schools like their parents before them.. without any experience of having been parented, they were raising children in underserved communities rampant with poverty, high death rates, and socioeconomic barriers.

173 “Hope is kindled when we remember that we belong to one another. By dropping our impulse to otherwise, reclaiming our kinship with all life, and embracing the Earth as our Mother, we can collectively awaken from this dangerous dream of dominance and teak up the privilege of stewardship that all the great wisdom traditions remind us is our true task.” Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy

Pg 174 One of the questions she boldly asked me that first time we met was, “Why was your mother so important? Native women are murdered all the time, and nobody cares. I’m not trying to be rude, but what’s the difference here?” Her question had no threat or challenge init. Instead, it was an opportunity to discuss disparity and look at the truth.

(referring to Marilyn, the sister of the man who murdered the author’s mom when the author was 20)

Page 177 transcript from Marilyn: I’m hiking all the time and caught a ride with one elder and he said, “do you know the seven directions? Seven directions, you know. He goes, well, north, east, west, south, Mother Earth, Father Sky, and the most important one within.” And that’s where it’s always got to start. And that’s what I’ve done. And that’s what I teach my children.

I can’t, I can’t help my family; I’ve tried. And I can’t help anyone. All I can do is share my story and the struggles that I have and continue to have, you know. I struggle with depression and I struggle with so much that comes along with FASD {Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). And I realize that a lot of my beginnings were the secondary effects of FASD and that’s what my family, my brothers and sisters, have lived. And I understand that now. And now I can live with this. But I’m really grateful. I’m thankful that you invited me to share. It’s—I haven’t had the easiest life, but you know, we all have our struggles. And when we each are blessed with angels, and I call them angels, those who come and change your life and change your way of thinking and just save you. And they’re always there in our lies and it’s our choice on whether or not we want to utilize them. You know. Because so many times it’s so easy to say, well, I know they’re trying to help and I just don’t want to be a burden. Bug that’s letting ego and not Spirit control you. And it’s tough because you get them mixed up. So thank you very much for having me here.

179 “ We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.” Gabor Mate, in the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, Close Encounters with Addiction

The book of Hope by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams

Page 46

"an intelligent animal would not destroy its only home"

Page 50

"fortunately, because of our extraordinary intellect and our ability to communicate with words, we have been able to progress beyond the purely emotional aggressive responses of other animals and, as I said, we have the ability to make conscious choices as to how we react in different situations. And the choices we make will parley reflect what we learned as children-- and that will depend on the country and culture into which we were born."

Page 54

She suddenly understood how a sense of compassion for the victims of oppression can lead to a hatred of the oppressor- and there you have a recipe for reciprocal violence and internecine war like in Rwanda and Burundi

Page 54/55 I referenced how Archbishop Tutu had chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commision in South Africa to avoid his country devolving into civil war. He had said that forgiveness is how we unchain ourselves from the past. We choose the forgiveness' cycle instead of the revenge cycle.

Page 56

(Jane Goodall referring on how people are more caring) I honestly think, Doug, that the majority of people are. Unfortunately, the media devotes so much space to covering al the bad, all the hateful things that are going on and not enough to reporting about all the goodness and kindness that's out there.

Page 57

we can never attain our full human potential unless our head and heart work together.

Page 58

we have lost the long-term perspective, and we are suffering from an absurd and unwise belief that there can be unlimited economic development on a planet of finite natural resources, focusing on short-term results or profits ant the expense of long-term interests.

It is shameful the way certain sections of society are deliberately kept undereducated and underserved. And then the time comes when the resentment and anger of those people finally erupts, ad they demand change.

Page 60

Of course, a great deal of our onslaught on Mother Nature is not really lack of intelligence but a lack of compassion for future generations and the health of the planet: Sheer selfish greed for short-term benefits to increase the wealth and power of individuals, corporations, and governments. The rest is due tot thoughtlessness, lack of education, and poverty.

60/61

(Abrams) Does some of our wisdom get lost when we lose connection with the natural world?

(Jane) I believe it does. Indigenous cultures have always had a close connection with the natural world. There are so many wise shamans and healers among the indigenous people, so much knowledge about the benefits of living in harmony with the natural world.

(Abrams) What have we forgotten or chosen to ignore?

(Jane) That there's intelligence in all life. I think indigenous people sense this when they talk about animals and trees being their brothers and sisters.

Page 62

(Jane regarding the German forester Peter Wohlleben) It's interesting that both Peter and Suzanne started off as foresters—managing forests so that they could be harvested in the most profitable way. Peter quite his job after fifteen years when he found that a forest he loved was doing quite well on its own, with almost no managing. And so he decided to devote himself to protecting and understanding that forest. He wrote a book: The Hidden Life of Trees and I honestly think that this book has done for trees what In the Shadow of Man did for chimpanzees. "

Page 67

I've found that stories reach the heart better than any facts or figures. People remember the message in a well-told story even if they don't remember all the details.

Page 79

Doug, I honestly believe we can turn things around. But- yes, there is a "but"- we must get together and act now. We only have a small window of opportunity — a window that is closing all the time. So each of us must do what we can to start healing the harms we have inflicted and do our bit to slow down biodiversity loss and climate change. I have seen or heard about hundreds of successful campaigns and met so many wonderful people. And sharing these stories gives people hope—hope that we can do better.

Page 98

I learned a lot-- about the destruction of forest habitats, the beginning of the bushmeat trade--that is, the commercial hunting of animals for food and the killing of mothers to sell their infants as pets or for entertainment. But during that same trip I began to realize also the plight faced by so many of the African people living in and around chimpanzee habitats. The terrible poverty, lack of health and education facilities, and degradation of the land.

Page 103/4

I see what you're saying about the link between nature's resilience and human resilience. How addressing human injustices like poverty and gender oppression makes us better able to create hope for people and the environment. Our efforts to protect endangered species preserve biodiversity on the Earth-- and when we protect all life, we inherently protect our own.

Lot's of other great things to read about.. Book is close to 250 pages but...I thought this was a great place to stop placing markers to go back to.

Constructing the (m)other Narratives of Disability, Motherhood, and the politics of Normal

26 Eventually I was able to reshape my view of the "good mother" to what disability studies scholars, Parens and Asch (2003, contend to good parenting, "which is appreciating, enjoying and developing as best one can the characteristic of the child one has, not turning the child into someone that she is not or lamenting what she is not"

153 Persion culture and literature are, in fact, filled with myths about valiant gods and goddesses, capable of accomplishing extraordinary missions. I believe that modern versions of these mythical beings manifest today in individuals, such as Negar, who resist the mainstream and create their own path. Negar's interpretations and evolving perceptions of autism are aligned with m any of the principles of the newly formed neurodiversity movement , and with disability studies perspectives of which she has not been aware.

203 I want you to know that dedication and a drive for perfection are good traits, but remember that one deserves to feel content, not only with accomplishments that eclipse most expectations, but also with those that do not meet any.

238 Storytelling is an important means through which families share meaning about themselves and position themselves within the broader universe (Huisman, 2014). Family identities continually evolve as members jointly adapt and reconstruct their stories in response to events and experiences. When something unexpected occurs, we engage in a higher degree of meaning- making, focusing on details we choose to remember, and shading experiences in ways that create coherence out of chaos

36 Central High School is a city suburban school with 1,300 students. Students are mainly from Pakeha (white, New Zealand European), middle to upper income families. Mauri, Pasifika, disabled and international students are significant minority groups within the school with around 100 students attending from each of those communities. lop and express their individuality. People often refer to the schools inclusive ethos as, "the central High way."

Central High School is also well known for its music and performing arts programmes. the teachers at the school say the musicals are open to, and inclusive of, everyone. All students are welcome to participate; auditions are held to give the students the experience of auditioning for a performance, and cast students in roles, not for the purpose of excluding or screening out students. Students are cast in speaking and singing roles or as Chorus members. Chorus members are not required to audition. Students can also be involved in a variety of aspects of the production like sound, lighting, or playing in the orchestra.

Unbowed A memoir Wangari Maathai the first African Woman and the first Environmentalist to win the nobel peace prize

“Kikuyu culture was oral, refined methods had been developed of passing knowledge to, and shaping the values of, future generations through, among other activities, stories.”

In the early 1950’s, frustrated by the slow pace of change, a guerrilla war for independence was launched: the Mau Mau. While there are many theories about the origin of the term “Mau Mau,” the one I find most interesting is “maundu ni mau”- “The main issues are..” and then hold up three fingers to introduce them. For the Mau Mau, the three issues were land, freedom, and self-governance.

Page 173 As the Green Belt Movement developed U became convinced that we needed to identify the roots of the disempowerment that plagued the Kenyan people. We had to understand why we were losing firewood, why there was malnutrition, scarcity of clean water, topsoil loss, and erratic rains, why people could not pay school feeds, and why the infrastructure was falling apparat. Why were we robbing ourselves of a future?

Gradually, the Green Belt Movement grew from a tree-planting program intone that planted ideas as well. We held seminars with the communities in which Green Belt worked, in which I encouraged women and men to identify their problems. As they spoke, I would write. Sometimes the list they generated would grow to 150 items. “where do you think these problems come from?” I would ask.

231 talks of teach ins. People being given chance to speak, ask questions and debate

2016 The Statesmanship of Sir John A. Macdonald and Louis Riel Anderson, Timothy

I read some of this essay while trying to figure something about accuracy of a quote between MacDonald and Lord Granville (the colonial secretary for the British government) ((* I figure it is false that Lord Granville actually said "As for the promises you make in the negotiations-- since when does a politician have to keep his promises?" I have no idea if this is right or not... from page 74, 4th caption. This part doesn't deal with that section.. but i want to read the whole essay one day and thought it interesting))..

U.S. Consul J. W. Taylor in June 1883. Riel wrote him regarding a trip he took to Manitoba that year: I have the honor to inform you of my presence in Manitoba and that I have become [an] American (sic) citizen in good faith, honestly, only to better my personal condition and standing in the world; and not to create any difficulty. The object of my visit is simply one of business concerning land belonging to my wife and to other parties who having emigrated from this country to Montana and having left some real Estate in this province, have authorized me to come and dispose of it by sale. My visit gives me, Mr Consul, a precious opportunity: I have the happiness to see once more my very dear mother, my brothers and sisters; my friends amongst whom you occupy, no second place.678 The Riel of this letter does not express any signs of spiritual transformation. He decided to become American in order to live a better life. His visit to Manitoba focussed solely on a banal sale of land and seeing relatives. The Riel of the Bourget letters understood himself to be God’s messenger to guide his Métis people into a new life. In this letter, Riel appeared to have given up on that. He was happy to just be an American rather than dedicate himself to recovering the souls of his people. Further, his travel back into the Canadian West had nothing to do with pursuing his assignment from God. He was a traveller, pleased enough by his new private life. 675 Ibid., p. 234. 676 Ibid., p. 235 et seq. 677 Ibid., p. 238. 678 George Stanley, gen. ed. “Letter to J.W. Taylor,” in The Collected Writings of Louis Riel, text 2-111. Edited by Gilles Martel (Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 1985), p. 290. 187

Even some of Riel’s poetry during this period appeared to be lighter. Consider a few stanzas from a poem he wrote in Helena, Montana in 1882: I can sing in my poetry Right and wealth. I can advertise Your trade. I can sing the country And every great enterprise. My poems can show the big trains Run by the Northern Pacific Over Hills and through rolling plains: I can celebrate their trafic (sic). My pen can invite emigrants To come and buy along the line Acres of those beautiful grants Where a land is worth a rich mine. I can speak also of politics And turn around a big fellow Unveil (sic) his well cover’d tactics Whenever they become too low. But politics are hot a ground Where roots of passions grow deep One has to be well back’d up, sound To walk there and get away cheap. And all you who stand in office O civil employers, I thank You well: your general police Keeps every one to a rank.679 It is significantly sunnier compared to many of Riel’s earlier poems. He celebrated trains and enterprise, a clear shift away from his religious brooding. His discussion of politics in the last three stanzas looked different from what one might expect. Politics were not an existential struggle for self-mastery. He did not see government as a conspirator against him. Instead, the American 679 Idem, “I Can Sing in My Poetry,” in The Collected Writings of Louis Riel, text 4-106. Edited by Glen Campbell (Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 1985), pp. 279-280, vv. 1-12, 21-28, 36-40.

188 government and its employees are depicted in a calmer, democratic tone. Finally, this poem is unserious. Riel was enjoying his life to such a degree that he did not weigh every word of the poem to express something profound. Instead, it was simply what flowed through his mind as he wrote it. This is not the poetry of a man consumed with his mission from God to liberate his people from bondage like a new Moses. Riel tried to convince the outside world that he was no longer moved by his mission, but in private, it still gnawed at him. In a letter to Bourget in February 1884, he reminded Bourget of his comment that God had given Riel a mission.680 Riel also restated that he believed in its truth.681 He asked Bourget if he could make Riel understand what he seemed not to grasp about having a mission from God that he must complete.682 Here, Riel was struggling with what he must be doing wrong, as nearly ten years had passed since he was charged by the Lord to save His people, and yet, little had changed. Since God’s wisdom accompanied Bourget, he hoped the bishop could give him some guidance.683 He then signed the letter “L.D.R.,” a reappearance of the mystical “David” as his middle name.684 Without question, although living a quieter life in America, he had not forgotten about his charge. Riel’s notebook of prayers and meditations between May and June 1884 leaves no doubt that he still had religious visions. His comments of 2 June are of special interest: L’esprit de Dieu s’est répandu dans mon cerveau, dès le commencement de mon sommeil. Je me suis réveillé en disant. Qui est-ce qui m’a fait du bien? Je suis sauvé à présent… L’esprit de Dieu nous impressionne quand il le veut; et comme il le veut, au degré qu’il lui plaît. Son influence vitale s’exerce aisément sur nous....685 680 Idem, “Lettre à Ignance Bourget,” in The Collected Writings of Louis Riel, text 2-129. Edited by Gilles Martel (Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 1985), p. 322. 681 Ibid. 682 Ibid., pp. 322-333. 683 Ibid., p. 323. 684 Ibid. 685 Idem, “Carnet de méditations et de prières,” in The Collected Writings of Louis Riel, text 2-151. Edited by Gilles Martel (Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 1985), pp. 355-356 189 [The spirit of God spread itself in my brain, since the beginning of my slumber. I woke up saying: Who is it that made me well? I am saved at present… The spirit of God shapes us when he wants, and as he wants, the degree to which he wants. His vital influence is exercised on us with ease….]686 This reveals that Riel still believed that God communicated with him. The Holy Ghost had entered into his mind in his sleep. I interpret this to be his time away from actively pursuing his mission. He had awoken from this sleep knowing that he had been saved. He stated that God initiates any visions he had. Riel had no control over how He related to him. Although these are prayers and reflections that Riel wrote for himself—they are unpolished and not quite clear— they show that he had not abandoned his religious inspiration altogether. The years between 1875 and 1884 are interesting when studying Riel because of the degree of transformation he underwent, and how much or little these experiences changed him. In one sense, the Washington DC vision inspired him to believe he was God’s prophet, to free his people in the New World. He was so taken by this that he had to be institutionalized. While at Longue - Pointe, he wrote several letters to Bourget describing the things he believed that the Holy Ghost had spoken to him. However, once he learned to control the manifestations of his mission, and ventured into the United States, we see a Riel who resembled his pre-transformation self. He tried to band together various Indian leaders to strike against the Canadian government in the NorthWest and form a provisional government, as he had done at Red River. His innermost motivation for this came from his frustration at Ottawa for the denial of the amnesty and the general deception he received at their hands. This Riel resembles the one I noted in the preceding chapter, bemoaning his dealings with the Canadian government. Finally, between 1880 and 1884, Riel seemed to have become a different person once again. He was content to become an American citizen, forgoing 686 My translation. 190 his loyalty to the Queen. He was happy to help the Métis of Montana, forgoing his religious charge to free his people in the North-West from the Canadian government. He was pleased enough to be a private citizen. Although his writings demonstrate that Riel still believed he was God’s prophet, he lived a quieter life in America.

234

carved out a distinction between structural and functional illnesses. A structural illness is a physical problem, whereas a functional illness meant there was a behavioural problem. Physicians discovered the former; the latter had to be invented.834 Szasz showed that even Freud had to have known he was not treating actual sickness. In moments when he was not trying to impress his medical critics, Freud’s notes suggest he knew that his job was to give “discourses on the troubles and unhappiness of human beings or persons, as moralists and writers do.” 835 Even if someone was faking his illness—Szasz calls this “malingering”—this was seen as an illness as well, since his actions are out of step with what psychiatrists and the public think are acceptable behaviour. 836 Szasz compared this whole movement in psychiatry to a person and a photograph of that person. A physical disease is the person, whereas the photograph is mental illness. They surely resemble one another, and are both “real,” but they are not the same thing, and should not be treated that way.

837dInstead, Szasz argued that mental illness is a metaphor rather than a phenomenon.838 We consider people to be “sick” because they behave in ways we find abnormal, just as we say someone suffers from kidney disease because his kidneys act abnormally. But someone’s personal behaviour is not a thing that can be sick in the same way. We say that someone’s behaviour is sickening, but that does not make it sick. Minds are “sick” in the same way that economies are “sick”; the expression is metaphorical.839 The accepted version of mental illness is troublesome because of what it does to its victims. They are treated with medications they do not require and institutionalized, often against their will, because it is supposed that their sickness makes them 834 Ibid., p. 12. 835 Ibid., p. 73. 836 Ibid., pp. 236 et seq. 837 Ibid., p. 47. 838 Ibid., p. 267. 839 Ibid. 235 unable to know better.840 So often, a finding of mental illness is “stigmatizing” and robs people of their freedom and dignity.841 Furthermore, the use of insanity pleas in criminal law will “corrupt the law and victimize the subject on whose behalf they are ostensibly employed.”842 Szasz wanted to replace the concept of the victim or sufferer of mental illness who cannot be blamed or held responsible for his actions. In its place, he proposed a game theoretical idea of conduct where what we call “mental illness” is a man not following the rules of the game within our society.843 A “mentally ill” person, on Szasz’s view, simply holds different values than those of the professionals who observe him; a hysteric struggles with the clash of equality and cooperativeness against “inequality and domination-submission” in his game.844 Szasz wrote that modern psychiatrists deny the freedom and autonomy of people to behave in various ways. They “prefer to operate with the tacit assumption that whatever their own values are, their patients and colleagues share them—or should share them!”845 A disagreement about values is not made explicit within the profession out of fear that it would destabilize “cohesion” amongst psychiatric experts and threaten the “prestige and the power of the psychiatric profession.” 846 Put differently, diagnoses of mental illness come from an unwillingness of psychiatrists to see human behaviour in a rule-following manner where one might value any number of things in their “game”; instead, they proceed in order to protect the image of their profession

The Anniversary Edition of Louis Riel a comic-strip biography Chester Brown

The government's first delaying tactic was to say that no lands could be registered until after a thorough land survey and census of the Manitoba population had been completed. That might have seemed logical enough, except that an Order-in- Council dated May 26th, 1871, allowed all newcomers to stake land wherever they found it. (...)the government officials ruled that the old settlers were not allowed this privilege because supposedly their lands were already protected under the Manitoba /Act. In disputes between Metis and newly arrived homesteaders over ownership of land, the new settlers almost always won. Many Metis families were thrown off land they had occupied for decades.

Comics 1 and 2 from page 111: Dr Howard" Mr David, you murdered Thomas Scott. Anyone who commits murder is insane." Louis R " But I did not murder Scott!" "Iwas not a member of the court. Marial that tired him. I was not in the firing-squad that shot him, and I was not the one who delivered the coup-de-grace."

P253 Riel was upset when a nun tore the inscription-page out of his prayer book, but he was not placed in a straitjacket on this occasion. **Seven years after Riel had been confined (in St Jean de Dieu), Dr. Harold Tuke, a prominent British reformer advocating more humane treatment for the insane, made a tour of the asylums of North America. He said of St Jean de Dieu, "in the course of seven and thirty years I have visited a large number of asylums in Europe, but I have rarely, if ever, seen anything more depressing.." It was horribly overcrowded, it shank, and the food was disgusting. Each inmate was confined to a tiny, narrow room Tuke said it was more like and animal pen than a cell-- where there was hardly enough space for a bed. (Siggins, p259)**

Dr Henry Howard on Riel and murderers: "I believed him to be guilty of the murder he was accused of, and I believed every murderer to be either insane or a fool." (Flanagan, 1996, p65.)

I don't believe that the behaviours that people associate with "Mental illnesses" are caused by biological abnormalities or malfunctions in the brain. To put it more simply "mental illnesses" are not illnesses." I was tempted to elaborate at lengthy of why Riel's behaviours and beliefs in late 1875 and early 1876 weren't symptoms of an illness, but it would all just be a rehash of what I wrote in my strip "My mom was a Schizophrenic" (which can be found in my book THE LITTLE MAN). So instead I'll just quote a brief passage by historian Thomas Flaagan and urge any of you who are puzzled by my statement that "mental illnesses are not illnesses" to read my schizophrenia strip or (even better) to read MMADNES, HERESY, AND THE RUMOUR OF ANGELS by Seth Farber and / or TOXIC PSYCHIATRY by Peter Breggin. ** Much of what strikes modern readers as incomprehensible and therefore insane makes sense in the context of Riel's ultramontane (Def -supreme papal authority in matters of faith and discipline.. Papal means relating to the pope) worldview, which included a God who controls human affairs, punishes the evil and rewards the good, works miracles in daily life, and speaks directly to men through revelation and prophecy. A hasty resort to medial labels risks rendering this phase of Riel's life meaningless, when in fact it is the key to understanding his character, and thus the overall pattern of his career. (Flanagan, 1996, p80)**

(the ultramontanes were Roman Catholics who p laced papal authority over state authority and who desired the reunion of church and state. Bishop Bourget was an ultramontane.)

327 In "My mom Was a Schizophrenic," Brown consults various sources on psychiatry and weaves together their statements and theories in order to present the case that what we call schizophrenia is not a disease but a construct, a label that society slaps onto unruly individuals in or4der to reinforce normative ideas of behaviour. The refusal to stigmatize the so-called schizophrenic experience-visions, voices, strange beliefs-- and the immersive study of secondary sources would both prove hugely important to "louis Riel's sympathetic portrayal of its hero's odd faith, as well as its daunting historical scope. Brown has described the creation of "My Mom.." as "fun": " I wanted to do something like that again-- do a lot of research on the subject and cram it all into a story." And he would: a few short years later, leaving both Jesus and the world of Underwater behind, Brown would at last begin Louis Riel.

125 the Metis in Manitoba received land grants through the Manitoba Act those land -grants were intended to extinguish the rights of the Manitoba Metis as descendants of Indians. THe Metis who didn't live in Manitoba are also descended from Indians If the Manitoba Metis got land, the Metis living outside Manitoba should get land too.

but the next page someone says: (in french)

126 They don't intend to give us the slightest thing in return for the soil where generations of our ancestors sleep. No we''ll never get anything until we take matters into our own hands and force the government to give us justice.

p255 refers to p125

After the 1885 rebellion, a land grant was made to the Metis of the North west in the form of scrip. Scrip was a certificate that could be traded for land or money. Most of the Metis chose to trade their scrip for money. Some argue that the scrip system was designed to keep the Metis from acquiring more land and that the true beneficiaries were land speculators who underpaid the Metis for the scrip. On the other side are those who say that the Metis handled the scrip system to their advantage.

193 (in french) one fella " Three Days .. how much longer can we last?" Response of another " Our line of rifle pits is holding, but they'r just waiting for us to run out of bullets.)

229 Louis Riel, speaking in his defence

I 'ave acted in self-defence, while the government, being irresponsible and insane, cannot but 'ave acted wrong and , if treason t'ere is, it must be on its side and not on my part.

page 232 the PM, John A. MacDonald "Because there was some doubt about Riel's sanity, I delayed the execution until November 16th and had him examined by three doctors. They all agreed that he is not crazy. There is nothing I can do." Roderique Masson, the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (apparently spoken 'discreetly' from pa 264: "But for God's sake, John. Look at all Quebec papers.. Every Frenchman wants Riel pardoned!" John A. "He shall hand though eery dog in Quebec bark in his favour"

264 (refers to page 232)

The three doctors "were appointed in secrecy each doctor was an employee or beneficiary of the federal government; and none was an expert in the feild of inquiry."

Two of the doctors though that Riel was sane, but the third one, Dr Francois-Xavier Valade, disagreed and said so in a telegram to Macdonald. When presenting the conclusions of the three doctors in the House of Commons, Macdonald rewrote Valade's telegram to make it look as if Valade had concurred with the other two.

241

Because of the Canadian Pacific Railway's role in rushing the Canadian army to the Northwest, the CPR received substantial financial assistance from the Canadian Government. this made it possible to complete the railways line on November 7, 1885. As a result, George Stephen became one of the wealthiest men in the world. He was 92 when he died in 1921.

p265 refers to 241' George Stephen, Donld Smith, and James J. Hill comprised the triamvirate that formed and controlled the original syndicate of investors in the CPR. At their peak these three associates individually and collectively wielded unmatched financial and political power in North America. A few short years after the last spike (November 7, 1885, they would be among the richest men not just in North America, but in the entire world.

last of 328

Much has been made of Riel's Debt to Harold Gray, the creator of Little Orphan Annie

329 bottom left

For Annie, like Riel, is unabashedly didactic: It ants to tell its readers something about their world, to teach and argue and get political. Gray was an old-school, small -government Republican, and readers can see that same mistrust of intervention and bureaucracy sneaking into Brown's world. Brown's politics would become libertarian by the time he had completed Riel-- he would even campaign for Parliament himself, as Riel once did-- but the true political link binding these strips together is the conviction that the law is no partner to justice, and that what is legislated is not always what is right.

330

chats of Jack Jackson, another comic artist

as Joseph Witek writes in Comic books as History. Jackson's earliest history comics, especially, bear comparison with Riel. Comanche Moon and Los Tejanos are biographical treatments of men liek Riel who straddled two or more cultures, and who became leaders of people overcome by the wave of westward expansion, then all too soon dispossessed and maligned.

is Jackson's version of the life of Quanah Parker, whose white mother lived among the Comanche (her story inspired John Ford's the Searchers). Parker grew into a warrior, wo at first railed against white America's manifest destiny, before eventually becoming involved in the political life of the Comanche- as Riel had with the Metis-- representing his people in trips to Washington, seeking education and peace and rights to the land. Juan Seguin is the subject of Jackson's second book, Los Tejanos, named after the people of Mexican heritage Revolution. Sequin plays and instrumental role in the founding of Texas, just as Riel does in Manitoba.

Disability pride Ben Mattlin page 32

Under-reported is the case of police violence of those with sensory, sensory or intellectual disabilities than may make them appear drunk or non cooperative. A study by the Ruderman family Foundation a non profit disability advocacy group, found as many as half the people killed by law enforcement officers, had a disability.

P 33 WORSE STILL, IT'S HARD TO SHAKE. "internalized ableism' is believing the prejudicial assumptions and expectations thrust on you by society, believing you're inferior, undesirable, burdensome, don't fit in and /or in need of repairing or healing or fixing or curing. "internalized oppression is not the cause of our mistreatment, it is the result o our mistreatment," says the Briths disability scholar Deborah marks.

Page 49 disability gets casg as a medical phenomenon rather than a sociopolitical one.

The social model of disability, in contrast , recognizes that disability isn't a problem to be remedied; instead it's the ill-suited and unnecessary closed off environment that's the problem

Page 81 "there's nothing inherently wrong or defective about a person whose brain operates differently from another person's.

Page 82 instead of thinking about how can we cure these conditions by discovering their cause, we focused on what these people actually need to participate more fully?"

Page 85 "it is also a consequence because poverty can limit access to health care an preventative services, and increase the likelihood tha person lives and works in an environment that may adversely affect health

Page 86 you can't legislate people's hearts and minds. This happens at another level. You've got to tell these human stories

Page 95 Besides seeking entertainment, audiences scan for signals about where to place their allegiance, whom to believe. What's right and wrong.

Pag 197 "the mindset of disabled people is inately collaborative and communicative, orientated towards problem solving, good at working with limited resources, and used to overcoming daily challenges"

The Cultural Politics of the Paralympic Movement P David Howe notes

Page 104 Changes that occur within a race, such as the tactics of the other competitors and the ability of the athlete to respond, are directly linked to the disposition or the ability to improvise that the athlete innately has developed through physical training and lived experiences more generally.

Merleau-Ponty’s conceptualization of corporeal schema is also importance when trying to determine how athletes (and other actors) make the decisions they do without really thinking about them. Know without knowing

Perception thought and action

Page 105 while society may be seen as shaping agents , it needs individuals’ improvisations from time to time if it is going to evolve. Therefore, in the post –industrial society in which we live it is as important to see the body as much a pro duct of the self as it is of society. It is the self that provides improvisations by drawing upon the sediment of previous social encounters.

135 The use of technological aids has led to a litany of supercrip stories. According toe Berger (2004: 798) : ‘supercrips’ are those individuals whose inspirational stories of courage and dedication, and hard world prove that it can be done, that one can defy the odds and accomplish the impossible. The concern is that these stories of success will foster unrealistic expectations about what people with disabilities can achieve, what they should be able to achieve if only they tried hard enough. Society does not need to change. It is the myth of the self-made man.

triggers How we can stop reacting and start healing David Richo

page 32 {The impact of triggering events is especially strong when we have not had enough sleep. The neuroscientist Matthew Walker, in his 2017 book Why We Sleep, writes, "without sleep, ou brain reverts to a primitive pattern of uncontrolled reactivity> We produce unmetered, inappropriate emotional reactions, and are unable to p lace events into a broader or considered context... We cannot rein in our atavistic impulses—too much emotional gas pedal (amygdala) and not enough regulatory brake (prefrontal cortex)"}

Page 33 "Some triggers work positively to marshal an energy in us that may have lain dormant up until now. For instance, we are in a situation in which someone is being victimized. Suddenly, we access the courage to step in and protect him. The human hero energy has been galvanized.

can learn to turn triggers into tools .. to act as a witness, the opposite of being triggered

page 55

we can trust an inner healthy voice that advocates for us and is not critical of us. We are accessing not only the voice of sanity and reason but also the voice of encouragement that builds self-esteem. we can talk to ourselves like a kindly aunt or uncle. We distinguish wat is happening from how we are feeling or believing things to be. We comfort ourselves and show understanding rather than rebuke ourselves for feeling so weakened by the reactions a trigger evinces.

71 when we are triggered, self- soothing can be an inner resource that we put into worlds: "I manage my anxiety. I can wind down from a crisis. I can calm myself." We have it in us do this without having to use drugs or alcohol. Psalm 131 reminds us of this resource in ourselves, "I have calmed and quieted myself.. I am content." Contentment with our present reality is precisely how we calm ourselves. Contentment is being satisfied with what is without wanting more and being satisfied with what is not without complaining about it. When Buddhism recommends letting go of craving and clinging, it is offering us the path to contentment.

112 113 When we have focused on being in control of people, feelings, and events we set ourselves up for worry when things happen beyond our control. that worry is the price we pay for all the years of energy we put into making sure we were in control.. The alternative attitude is surrender of control. It will be a "yes" to two simple but unwanted givens: First, we accept the fact that we wont' always be able to control outcomes, so it is wise to invest some energy into devising a program for that eventuality- deciding, for instance, "let the chips fall where they may. I will grieve if I don't like the way they fall and then make the best of the way they fell. " Secondly, we can trust that whatever happens offers us an opportunity to love more and fear less. Our program then is simply gratitude.

What are we seeking, and what are we avoiding? Feeling these two at once is also the thing that underlies addiction. We are seeking some form of satisfaction while also avoiding something; We feel desire and fear simultaneously.

121

" There is no terror... in your threats

For I am armed so strong in honesty

That they pass by me as the idle wind.

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar "

167

We are not the superpower because we have the largest military on earth or because we have the strongest economy in the world. We should be a superpower because we espouse things that are important to everyone on earth.

Jimmy Carter, Liberty University commencement speech,
Lynchburg, Virginia, 2018
(espouse- adopt or support)

page 139 of Borderline Personality Disorder by Randi Kreger

< In her book " the long winter' Ingalls Wilder describes how her family holed up in the kitchen during a blizzard season, living on bread and tea. They lost weight and nearly starved to death until Laura's future husband risked his life to get some grain. Laura's hands chafed from twisting hay into sticks to keep the stove going, and Laura and her sisters nearly froze. As they changed into their bedclothes, they could see the breath in front of their faces. Yet they didn't complain. As Wilder wrote, "We knew it couldn't be helped."

Yet most of the time, Laura was joyful She saw her childhood as a wonderful time; Her descriptions have delighted generations. today we have lost the ability to say, "it couldn't be helped." Today, we believe things can and should be controlled. And, if they're not, then someone's to blame.>

i really enjoyed this book but think t as does another about he problem is a sign of the times. This passage kinda nalis it. I think is much more about society in general and why we have so many struggling / gaps of rich and poor. Some get labelled some get rich and do the labelling/blaming... not taking responsibility because they can't see that they are the storm. The eye of the storm seems calm...so many things, could think along this line of thinking but i have other things to do. My writing probably doesn't make sense but it did in my head at the time.

Border Lion page 58/59

< Biological tug of war between the logical and emotional aspects of the brain

When border lion is turned inward or outward, it is one of the top barriers.... from developing trusting relationships.>

I've skipped some things in there.. the passage was referring more to one on one relationships but i see it as a bigger picture too.. for example, trust of society in general. I try to have hope and remember better times as i aim for better times again. If someone has never had a good working relationship with the community, how can they believe in it?

Maya Angelou Adventurous Spirit Linda Wagner-Martin

p26 at the end of gather together. There Angelou insists, "My head stayed high from habit, but my last hope was gone. Every way out of the maze had proved to be a false exit. My once lively imagination would not come up with one more fantasy. My courage was dwindling.. For the first time in my life I sat down defenseless to await life's next assault" (Gather 378.)

Such despair is unusual for the Marguerite-Maya persona. More frequently, Angelou looks for ways to incorporate positive --even spiritual--import. Wehn she writes, as she frequently has, about her grandmothers years of earning money for the store, she has the Annie Henderson character say, "I looked up the road I was going and back the way I came, and since I wasn't satisfied, I decided to step off the road and cut me a new path" (in Wiliams 206).

p45-46 Just give me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie - a book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, Angelou leads in this second autobiography with a rarely disguised tone of resentment. To write about these years, she immerses herself in the hard period of earning a living (with no training to do so), and indirectly illustrates what Kali Tal and other psychologists claim is latent anger at her earlier victimization. (Tal explains, "Bearing witness is an aggressive act. It is born out of a refusal to bow to outside pressure to revise or to repress experience, a decision to embrace conflict rather than conformity, to endure a lifetime of anger and pain rather than to submit to the seductive pull of revision and repression. Its goal is change... If survivors retain control over the interpretation of their trauma, they can sometimes force a shift in the social and political structure" {Tal 7}) With aggression, however, comes change--sometimes defiant change. Judith Herman speaks to the long-term effects of any trauma, an event which may well {shatter the construction of the self that is formed and sustained in relation to others" and, ultimately, "cast the victim into a state of existential crisis" (Herman 5).

P48 It is not only the returning soldiers who are left hanging unpleasantly in a supposedly civilized world, a world that cares little for people who struggle against social and racial prejudice.

58 self-consciousness as African American poets tried to straddle that line between writing from white traditions (to show off their formal educations) and speaking in more natural, and probably raced, language.

the African American call and response pattern and the cumulative effects of group play: Jazz never existed as a solo mode. "the will to achieve the most eloquent expression of idea-emotion through the technical mastery of instruments... the give and take; the subtle rhythms, shaping and blending of ideas, tone and imagination demanded of group improvisation. The delicate balance struck between individual personality and the group during those early jam sessions was a marvel of social organization" (Bluestein 135-6)

77 Dolly McPherson, a close personal friend and earl substantive critic of Angelou's memoirs Calls them "blues autobiography." and refers to Angelou as a "blues autobiographer." She discusses that, "One critic suggests that blues autobiographers depend, from the beginning of their works, upon some particular aspect of their character to act as a lens through which the confusion of experience can be perceived and the integrity of personality achieved" (McPherson 18). She concludes, "The process of discovering meaning in the blues autobiography is closely associated with the process of discovering personal consciousness" (ibid. 19).

"expands the solo: the voice of the single individual singer retains the tone of the tribe. { specifically with } makes them comprehensible to the autobiographer and to those who listen"

a them of "ascension" "returning and leaving (motion) form a pattern.. a making of peace with her past so that, in retrospect,... it is neither a sentimental haven nor a cage."

p81 "We left Egypt undeniably changed. The exposure to extreme wealth and shocking poverty forced the frivolous to be level-headed and encouraged the sober to enjoy what they had taken for granted" (Singin'590),.

p113 Africans also value friendship and community. the Kongo idea that human beings ae representations, bringing radiance in the form of light from the spirit world, plays out in a saying attributed to the Bantu: "A person is a person because of people."

p130 Moving to a pervasive concern with younger generations, Angelou notes that she fears cynicism. (She worries that a young person "has gone from knowing nothing to believing in nothing."

p131 The United Staes, with Malcolm X as its leader, would "rid our country of racism once and for all... We were going to give them (the South /Africans) something new, something visionary, to look up to. /after we had cleansed ourselves and our country of hate, they would be able to study our methods, take heart from our example and let freedom ring in their country as it would ring in ours" (Song 1061)

p137 It is a a great blessing to have lived in the time of Martin Luther King, Jr., when forgiveness and generosity of spirit encouraged our citizenry to work for a better world for everybody (Rainbow 63). (In 1964 Martin Luther King , Jr., had been honored by receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.)

p141 "We had come so far from where we started and weren't' nearly approaching where we had to be, but we were on the road to becoming better. I thought if I wrote a book, I would have to examine the quality in the human spirit that continues to rise despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." "Rise out of physical pain and the psychological cruelties." Rise from being victims of rape and abase and abandonment to the determination to be no victim of any kind." Rise and be prepared to move on and ever on" (Song 1166)

p 149 And still I rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies.

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise (Tate in Braxton 157)

152 Her "talks" were filled with cajoling, pleading, reaching out to audience members to urge them to live morally, push themselves to achieve, as well as to find inner satisfactions and (perhaps) peace, creating narratives that served to illustrate significant principles for upright living. Angelou said in an interview that she was no " goody-two shoes," but part of her appeal as a lecturer was that she was not afraid to be just that (Paris 250). As Burr points out, even Angelou's model for "reading" her poems was unique.)

Critic Eleanor Tralor makes the point that Angelou in an occasional poem is drawing from a number of famous African American poems, earlier poems that manage to stand like revered ghosts in the minds of the readers' conscious minds.

158 Wallis Tinnie's essay "This sacred music of black Americans, which served both spiritual and political ends in the antebellum South, becomes a source of transcendence as the poet intones the sacred lines. Angelou converts this music into a wellspring form which all people can drink and be fulfilled. This is what the cultural griot/shaman does; she turns the violence and mayhem into healing medicine through the power of natural rhythms and word magic" (Tinnie 523)

166/67 from 'my many million men" complete with spaces for hands clapping, people dancing. this is the eleventh stanza:

Celebrate, stand up, clap hands for ourselves

and those who went before

Stand up, clap hands, let us welcome kind

words back into our vocabulary

Stand up, clap hands, let us welcome

courtesies back

last three lines that once again convey the excitement of sheer promise:

Clap hands, celebrate

We deserve it

Jubilate!

Maya Angelou deserved to be better-known as a poet that she was: She gave readers what she called "art for the sake of the sou," not mere language pyrotechnics (Stars119).

p169 Critic Annis Pratt formulated patterns of women's writing,

is that women characters cannot survive society unless they grow "down," rather than up. Angellou's characters would, obviously, differ from that remarked pattern-her characters usually make progress toward some goal or other, even if society might make frown at the goal itself.

p171 "Africa" What Angelou does in this long essay is to explain the relationship between Africa as the source of slaves and the negative image that white cultures world-wide had formed of the continent. "Slavery's profiteers had to convince themselves and their clients that the persons they enslaved were no better than beasts. They could not admit that the Africans lived in communities based upon sociopolitical structures no better or worse than their European counterparts of the time. The slave sellers had to persuade slave buyers that the /African was a primitive, a cannibal, and richly deserved oppression. How else could the Christian voice be silent-- how soothe the Christian conscience?"

182 It may also be that, according to Joanne Braxton's summary of all Angelou's memoirs, that the author had throughout used "selective remembering," as well as a "self censoring strategy of recollection" (Braxton 7).

p187 In her book Healing Narratives, Women Writers Curing Cultural Disease, critic Gay Wilentz describes the African spirit leader, a position of power usually held by and older community member, often a woman. Drawing from the cultural premise that individual health is less important than the health of any community, and that "the health of an individual person is directly linked to the health of the community and the culture," Willentz says as well that really significant "birth" is social as well as biological; just existing does not give a human being the true power that life necessitates. Wilentz places this belief in its African context, the belief "linked to the relationship between past and future generations through the role of the ancestor, whose importance is evident in much of the Caribbean as well as the United States African American society" (Wilentz 30-1)

Whereas men may fill the roles of traditional healers and obeahmen, the power of leading others into health and wisdom remains a female role. The force of matriarchal understanding throughout African lives is incontrovertible. Yet, the woman who listens, absorbs, relates, and gives wise counsel is a rarity: her role is linked with the attainment of spiritual health.

p 205 Angelou defines herself as a part of the "working class": "I work very, very hard in a system which believes that money dictates and explains the value of the person." Trying to help Suman understand the real class system, she adds, "We cannot separate the artists from the workers. The role of the artist is to serve for the betterment of our society. And we have all been equally exploited, equally debased" (Suman11).

"I try to live what I consider a 'poetic existence.' This means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate , to be totally present for all my work. I try to be present. I try for concentrated consciousness which I miss by more than half , but I'm trying." "I'm always trying to be a better human being" (Tate in Braxton 151-2).

p208 In her 2014 collection, Rainbow in the Cloud, she wrote: The wise woman thinks twice and speaks once or better yet, does not speak at all (Rainbow 104).

She also wrote there: "What I have always wanted is to be of use. I will not be abused. I will not be misused, not willingly. But I will be of use. Anybody who is not of use is useless: (Rainbow 86).

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