PRESS RELEASE BY THE
American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council
The American Indian Movement Peace Statement
September 15, 2001

The American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council vehemently condemns the recent acts of violence and terrorism perpetrated against innocent civilians in the United States. We condemn similar acts of violence and terrorism perpetrated by all governments and organizations against innocent civilians worldwide.

THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT GRAND GOVERNING COUNCIL DECLARES:


On Sunday, September 16, 2001 at 3:00 p.m. central time, Indian people will be standing with thousands of Minnesotans at the State Capitol to join our prayers and spirit in the wake of these horrific and tragic events. We request that all of our Indian peoples and others join us in our offerings and prayers at this time.

Our hearts go out to the victims and their families, and we mourn with them the loss of their loved ones. As a people who have historically suffered similar crimes against humanity perpetrated against peaceful Indian villages in the North America, and continuing today against Indian civilians in several countries of Central and South America, we nonetheless at this time grieve and join our prayers and spirits with the families of the innocent victims of these acts of violence in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C.

However, we caution and remind the U.S. Government leaders that all faiths of the world are taught that violence begets violence. Mahatma Ghandi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. have proven the power of non-violence. Our great chiefs like Blackhawk and Chief Joseph, in the face of great adversity, were men of peace and non-violence. Blackhawk, who correctly observed at that time, when he asked the question, "Why is it that you Americans always insist on taking with a gun what you could have through love?"

With acts of love, we can become the most respected government and people in the world, and we will prevail. If we continue the cycles of violence, we will continue to be the most despised in many parts of the world, and we will fail. We must continue to pray for justice and world peace.

CONTACT:


Ne-Gon-We-Way-We-Dun, Anishinabe Ojibwe Nation
Also known as Clyde H. Bellecourt
Phone: 612-724-3129
National Director American Indian Movement

Nowa-Cumig, Anishinabe Ojibwe Nation
Aka, Dennis J. Banks
Phone: 218-654-5885
Chairman of the Board, American Indian Movement

WaBun-Inini, Anishinabe Ojibwe Nation
Aka, Vernon Bellecourt
Phone: 612-721-3914 Fax: 612-721-7826
International Director American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council

Ministry for Information

P.O. Box 13521
Minneapolis MN 55414
612-721-3914 FAX: 612-721-7826
Email: aimggc@worldnet.att.net
Web Address: www.aimovement.org



Related Statements will Follow:




We have received many letters and essays regarding the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States. We have decided to begin publishing some of these. The following article by Tim Wise is an example of what we think needs to be said. We think the American people should understand and not forget the past so that tomorrow is better for everyone.

October 8, 2001
Some Folks Never Felt Safe:
The Truth Behind National Unity
By Tim Wise

"We stand united," comes the proclamation from America's political leaders and national media. "Americans are pulling together like never before," say still others, in the wake of the horrific attacks of September 11. American flags are popping up everywhere: on lapel pins, car antennae, hastily printed T-shirts, and as inserts in the newspaper; the latter, for those who want to show their national pride but can't hustle it down to the local Target or Wal-Mart to pick up a fancier version.

And so it is amid this outpouring of manufactured and marketed patriotism, this presumption of national unity, that one might take note of the lingering signs that we are, in point of fact, anything but one nation. Osama bin Laden aside, and duly noting the ability of a common enemy to oftentimes paper over existing divisions for the time being, the simple truth is, fissures are everywhere.

One such fault line emerged this past week, when Officer Stephen Roach, of the Cincinnati Police Department was acquitted on all charges stemming from his April shooting of Timothy Thomas: the 15th young black man killed by police there in the last few years.

Roach, who shot an unarmed Thomas after chasing him down an alleyway, was praised by the Judge in the case as having had an "unblemished" record, as opposed to Thomas, who the Judge stressed "did not." Indeed, Thomas had fourteen outstanding citations against him, mostly for traffic violations. Apparently, in this unified nation, such misdemeanors are sufficient to justify being killed if you then run from police for fear of being either arrested or possibly roughed up -- as Cincinnati cops have been known to do from time to time.

Not only was the negligent homicide charge dismissed, but so too was the charge that Roach had obstructed the ensuing police investigation by lying repeatedly about the incident. Although there was no attempt to deny Roach had lied -- first claiming Thomas had "reached for something in his waistband," and then saying he was startled by Thomas coming around a corner -- the Judge threw out the charge anyway, saying it had no significant effect on the investigation. That such light treatment of intentional police deception might set a bad precedent for future incidents was apparently of no concern to the judge.

Were such things extraordinarily rare, one might be inclined to chalk them up to aberration. But in fact, it is all too common for people of color to be on the receiving end of police brutality, even to the point of death. As the Stolen Lives Project has documented, there are hundreds of cases in the last few years of persons killed by law enforcement officers; an overwhelming number of these unarmed, and black or brown. And it is the rare instance when even one of these results in anything more severe than an administrative punishment for the offending cop. In fact, it is just as likely that the officer involved in such an incident will receive a raise and commendations, as it is that they will ever serve a day in jail.

And so despite the rhetoric of national unity, the deep divisions in our criminal justice system, especially regarding police misconduct towards people of color, rear their ugly head again and remind us that unity is, after all, just a word.

Or more to the point, unity is in the eye of the beholder, as are most things. Perspective is shaped by experience; and not just one experience like the World Trade Center attacks, but a multitude of experiences over one's lifetime. Perspective grows directly from one's position, for it is from that position that one surveys the stuff of everyday existence. For those who are used to feeling safe and secure, the events of this past month will no doubt have had a particularly jarring effect. But for others, terrorism from abroad may only feel like a more extreme manifestation of everyday life.

Amid the horror of September 11, many a voice has been raised to exclaim that "now, we Americans finally know what it's like" to be the targets of someone else's hatred. Of course, were it not for the resurgent hyper-nationalism that has characterized the past few weeks perhaps we might have noticed that some Americans have long understood what it means to be targeted for who they are. To be terrorized, attacked, even killed. All the "we're all in this together" blather aside, there are millions of Americans who never felt safe. Never felt secure. Never assumed that their citizenship protected them from anything, for indeed it never has.

For far too many people of color, poor folks of all colors, and gays and lesbians, there was no sense of security to shatter. No feeling of invincibility to which Osama bin Laden could even theoretically lay waste. For these Americans, the possibility of being the victims of targeted violence or institutional neglect is all too real, and those they have learned to fear are anything but foreign.

Whether the violence of individual thugs, organized hate groups, police, or lawmakers who turn the other way as poverty, infant mortality and inadequate health care ravage entire communities, the result is the same: injured is injured, and dead is most certainly dead. Dying as the result of a plane crash or crumbling building may indeed be more dramatic, and the thought of it is certainly more ghastly. But I doubt it is any more painful or any more final than any of the multitudinous ways that tens of thousands of our nation's least powerful have been dying for many a year now.

Of course, a nation that is proud of its selective memory -- only remembering the parts of our past that flatter us while studiously avoiding mention of the rest -- won't be able to see any of this. A nation whose dominant majority never heard of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 -- which really wasn't a riot so much as a white orgy of violence against the city's prosperous black business community -- will naturally think terrorism on American soil is a recent phenomenon. A nation whose dominant majority has no idea what happened in Rosewood, Florida, and that has forgotten the lynching parties, known as "Negro Barbecues" that were a common occurrence in the South not so long ago, will naturally be stunned at the barbarity of the Arab or the Muslim "fanatic." That white-on-black race riots were a common thread linking North, South, East and West for most of the first fifty years of the twentieth century, ultimately costing hundreds of lives and destroying millions of dollars worth of property, remains unspoken -- presumably irrelevant in our discussions of terrorism, unity, or national bonding.

So too the terroristic enterprise whose actions led to the founding and building of the United States in the first place: namely, the marauding bands of cavalry, assorted soldiers and so-called pioneers who instigated vicious and depraved attacks on Indian peoples. And this they did, not only so they could take their land, but also so as to break down their resistance, instill fear in their hearts and minds, and force them to retreat against the advance of our collective vision. Pretty much the textbook definition of terrorism, truth be told.

I'm thinking here of Captain William Tucker, who in the 1600's, took his soldiers to negotiate a peace treaty with the Powhatans, after which he persuaded them to drink a toast with poisoned wine. Two hundred died immediately and his soldiers killed fifty more, bringing back heads as souveniers.

And I'm thinking of Thomas Jefferson, who 153 years later, unsatisfied with the pace at which Indians were cooperating by dying, would write: "nothing will reduce those wretches so soon as pushing the war into the heart of their country. But I would not stop there. I would never cease pursuing them with war while one remained on the face of the Earth."

And I'm thinking of Andrew Jackson, who supervised the mutilation of over 800 Indian corpses after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, at which time his men cut off noses and sliced strips of flesh from the bodies for use as bridle reins.

Or perhaps the Third Colorado Volunteer Cavalry, which massacred Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants at Sand Creek, and then scalped the dead, severed testicles for use as tobacco pouches, and paraded in the streets of Denver with severed female genitals stretched over their hats.

Yes, terrorism on American soil is anything but new. And while there are clear and important differences between the twisted Taliban or al-Qu'aeda network on the one hand, and this nation's founders, like Jefferson on the other, the fact remains -- as mentioned previously -- that dead is dead. To the victims of the latter, it hardly matters that in his better moments, he might have waxed eloquent about representative democracy.

And just as the heinous destruction of 6,000 or so lives at the hands of hijackers this month will be remembered forever, so too must these other acts of terror. That individually they may have involved lower body counts, and that we didn't get to see the damage done on live television seems fairly irrelevant. Terrorism is not defined by the enormity of its death toll, after all.

So while the majority of Americans (especially whites) may see the recent attacks by presumed outsiders as sui generis in their nation's history, for many Indian peoples, African Americans, and others who have been the victims of targeted, hate-inspired violence, the tragedy, while appalling, had the ring of the familiar to it. Even if it is only part of the collective memory and historical consciousness of such folks, such a knowledge that one is never safe so long as one lacks power and resources, is a vital truth which must inform our current analysis.

At the very least, it should give us pause when we presume a national unity, a collective brother and sisterhood, or a common experience. Our experiences are not common. Our treatment is not equal. And nothing about that has changed since September 11th.

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Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer, lecturer and antiracism activist.

Copyright (c) 2001 Tim Wise. All Rights Reserved.