A report of an aggressive sea lion at the city’s Aquatic Cove made the news recently. According to officials, 3 swimmers were attacked in a span of 5 days by what was described as “aggressive marine mammals”. Aquatic Park Cove is frequented by triathletes and members of the South End Rowing Club—among others—for the chilly waters that can get the heart pumping during an early morning swim. Many professionals, including Doctors and lawyers—the kind that Richard Pryor described as “old white men that be lappin’ yo’ ass while you tryin’ to jog in the park”--no doubt frequent Aquatic Park Cove to maintain both physical and mental prowess that can, ultimately, be applied to the corporate board room or spa. I was intrigued to learn of the attacks because during my visits to North Beach, I have witnessed sea lions on wooden planks lying in the sun, the planks undulating to the rhythms and currents of the emerald waters, still and serene, except for a sudden eruption of barks emanating from their bewhiskered mouths.

Good natured, almost regal they appear, in the presence of tourists from around the globe who gawk at them while stuffing their faces with local fare—bread bowls overflowing with clam chowder, ice cream cones and any number of concoctions featuring the vast array of crustaceans that inhabit the bay and beyond. The sea lions themselves appear to be satisfied—as if lying after a big meal, waiting for someone to toss a cigar, jump in the water, swim over and perform the duty of lighting it.

Having grown up in North Beach, I remember the sound of conga drums, bongos, timbales, tin cans—all coming together at Aquatic Park. With fond memories I embarked on a search for the sea lion deemed the “aggressive marine mammal.” I gazed at the wide expanse of water along Aquatic Cove for 3 days and for three days all I saw were seagulls and ripples in the water. I was ready to give up until I encountered the sight of a sea lion navigating effortlessly the brisk emerald waters it calls home. There was nobody in the vicinity, just the sea lion and I. I got its attention. It swam to the shore.

TR: Hey!
Sea Lion: What’s up? Where do I know you from?
TR: I don’t know
Sea Lion: Didn’t you used to hang out at Aquatic Park? You used to drum with those guys on the weekends.
TR: I remember that. I never played the drums but I listened
Sea lion: It was cool, but everything damn thing they played sounded the same…it was like listening to Santana…Jingo Bop for 10 hours straight
TR: Can I ask you something?
Sea Lion: Shoot
TR: Did you do it?
Sea Lion: What are you referring to?
TR: Did you attack 3 swimmers in 5 days?
Sea Lion: It wasn’t me. But I know who it was. Not all sea lions look alike you know.
TR: Who was it?
Sea Lion: Hey, I ain’t no sea snitch but he’s been around for a long time. He’s scared.
TR: Scared? Why?
Sea Lion: We got internet access down below. We know what’s going on. North Beach is plagued with short term rentals and evictions. There’s a real fear that we’ll get evicted from our planks. Someone will want to use them for a short term rental or condo. We don’t want to live in no condo-submarine, you know?
TR: So, you’re scared?
Sea Lion: Wouldn’t you be? Nobody’s safe. Look, we’re a tourist attraction…people come around snapping our pictures all the time. Taking our best poses and sticking them on postcards. And the verbal abuse we take to boot. And everybody takes a selfie with us. But did they ever ask us if we wanted to be in their little pictures?
TR: But that doesn’t justify attacking someone
Sea Lion: I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t in the vicinity. But I asked him about it.
TR: What did he say?
Sea Lion: He said it was a nip, a love bite. Said he was trying to get their attention.
TR: The guy who got bit had a tourniquet applied to his arm.
Sea Lion: I heard about it. The one who bit him felt bad about it.
TR: Remorse
Sea Lion: I suppose. He did say that those old guys don’t have much meat on their bones. But he regretted it.
TR: What are you going to do now?
Sea Lion: Try to keep out of trouble. But the places we can swim and breathe seem to be getting smaller. We have to share but it seems that sharing has taken a different meaning. A coyote friend of mine told me that there was a mountain lion seen up on Diamond Heights. I’d heard that the mountain lion had gotten wind of the evictions and that the people were vanishing so he thought there’d be space for him. What he didn’t know was that people were being replaced with more people. So they shot his ass with a tranquilizer gun. But we got to share this planet, this space. But it seems that sharing has taken a different meaning. This is a problem on both land and sea.
TR: Any final words or thoughts?
Sea Lion: Yeah, you want a love bite?

The sea lion gave me a fist bump with his flipper. He trudged along the shore and into the cool waters of Aquatic Cove. I watched as his figure became one with the ocean, among the thousands of ripples taking shape along the current. I headed towards the sound of drums, timbales, congas and tin cans…Jingooooo Bop!

© 2017 Tony Robles

“I was anticipating a breakthrough -- hoping that the protest would not be instantly dispersed by riot police, like so many previous marches. On that day I thought that if everybody does their part, we will have tens of thousands. What happened was a shock to me. Instead of tens of thousands, there were hundreds of thousands”.

-Ahmed Salah, speaking to Washington Post reporter Jackson Diehl

Oddly, people who speak to me about revolution quote theorists of the 19^th Century or their favorite heroes, now dead, from the 20^th. Certainly, there are lessons to be learned there. Yet here in San Francisco, California, we have the key designer of the successful revolution in the most important country in the 21^st Century Arab world. And far from being mobbed with inquiries from admirers, he instead lives in obscurity and near poverty.

How could Americans let Nikola Tesla, the genius who invented the modern era, die alone and in obscurity? Why do we ignore such people, but only revere them in death? Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone?

In 1991, Ahmed Salah was a translator and teacher of Arabic to tourists and journalists. Within 20 years he would become a key player in the Arab Spring and a central designer of the revolution in Egypt itself. His memoir (co-written with Alex Mayyasi), You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution is a textbook for what makes mass social movements succeed and fail, and what makes revolutions triumph against all odds.

They’d tried everything in Egypt before. They’d held marches and demonstrations. They’d taken Tahrir Square before the revolution, only have the police violently take it back. They tried using social media, but that only gave the police their plans in advance. (Yes, “The Twitter Revolution” is an outright lie.) Nothing they tried gained any ground against the security forces until they took their organization and did actual market research, among the population of Cairo. Not that they used that term, but as “journalists”, they took to the streets and asked people if they heard of the upcoming demonstrations. Promising to use no names, they then asked if they planned to attend. Receiving the almost universal answer of “no”, they asked why, and listened. And they took the time to ask each person what their most important concerns about life were.

 “It sounds simple for a group of idealists to express noble sentiments like ‘Bread, freedom, and dignity’—as Arabs articulated their demands during the Arab Spring. Yet as I learned from Youth for Change and April 6th, it is incredibly difficult. Activists and dissidents are humans who argue and make mistakes and let ego lead them astray. “

-You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution, p291

Salah’s memoir gives key insights into issues, not only in Egypt, but in the Middle East as a whole. He grew up in the most secular, educated and modern country in the entire region.

If you think what’s happening Syria is big, notice how central to the Middle East Egypt is on a map. Now note that, while Syria has a population of about 17 million people, Egypt has a population of 96 million. And in spite of all the oppression financed with U.S. tax dollars, parts of Egypt remain outside of government control to this day. There are parts of Egypt the government simply bombs a few times a month, unable to take control, but only fighting to keep rebellions from spreading. The country will fall apart, and when it does, what’s been happening in the Middle East up until now could look like a picnic by comparison. The instability, coupled with the increasing aggressions of Israeli and Saudi forces could lead to anything. Only an education on the realities, not the propaganda, of the region can save it.

 “No one could wait for Mubarak to get out of power. Egyptians filled Tahrir Square, the surrounding blocks, and even the bridges over the Nile so thickly that it took hours to move a few hundred yards. When I managed to call activists over the overburdened cell phone network, I learned that protesters remained at the presidential palace and that worker strikes had ended train service, blocked roadways, “

-IBID p242

The revolutions, of course, were betrayed. Neither George W. Bush, nor Barack Obama had more then rhetoric for the Arab World’s yearning for freedom. Backing a strongman just feels safer to them, since an educated electorate will act in their own best interests, but dictators can be swayed with money and threats. But despite the bluster and out of control aggression of the Trump administration (or perhaps because of it), the empire is faltering. Future rebellions may not be so easy to reverse and threats may be harder to carry out.

Ahmed Salah lives with medical conditions resulting from torture paid for with U.S. tax dollars. He gets by from money earned from speaking engagements and from selling copies of his memoir. You can buy it at amazon.com or by contacting him personally at asea1009@yahoo.com.

The rubber sides of the boat were like arms- thick - round - hard. “These are the boats refugees have to travel through, men sit on the side, the women, children and elders in the middle, sometimes getting splashed and sick with the leaking gasoline from the engine because they are covering miles of ocean to go from one country to another,”

Each of the tour guide’s words from Medices Sin Fronter MSF (Doctors Without Borders) rolled out of her mouth like water, narrating the “Forced From Home” traveling exhibit of removal, government/empire wars and NGO/Govt abuse of indigenous bodies across the global south. As she spoke she cut lines into my already broken heart, breaking it into even more pieces. Our liberation school Deecolonize Academy was on a field trip to this exhibit, sitting together in a dull gray rubber raft which was sitting on the black asphalt parking lot behind the kaiser auditorium in downtown Oakland. We were surrounded by everything that was allegedly modern and clean and part of this stolen Lisjan/Ohlone territory known as Oakland, California, United States.

As the guide took us through the literal experience of “refugees” across mama earth destroyed, dismantled and exploited from the empire fueled wars and kkkorporate land grabs in  Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Tanzania and South Sudan and more, directing us to “pick five things we could take with us with only a 10 second warning, I stood there deciding between a laminated card with a water bottle, passport or money icons on it. I began to get a pit in the deepest part of my stomach. I had been here before, so many times. the minutes to second warnings varied from situation to situation. This was my life as a houseless child.

Beginning at age 11 when i had to decide whether to take my favorite stuffed rabbit, my 6th grade class photo or one other pair of jeans in the hefty bag we were about to throw out of the 3rd floor apartment window me and mama were being evicted from, the 5-10 second warnings began. This was the first eviction we were faced with, our first in a long line of poverty and disability fueled displacements. Then there were the cars that we were living in that were towed, giving me and my mama 2-5 seconds to grab “everything” before they were hitched onto the tow trucks and driven away, never to be seen again. We were towed over and over because we  were parked overnight in neighborhoods that didn’t want “homeless” people and their hoopties (broke-down cars)  on their streets, so we would accumulate “illegal lodging” tickets, which we could never pay until they would tow our home away for good.

And then there were the 5 minute warnings of poLice and Department of public works before all of our belongings were going to be thrown in the trash when we were sleeping in doorways, on benches and in parks, but by this time the deciding got easier, there was hardly anything left to decide on. This was when the numbness of loss set in, this is when the poverty eats you up and you just become the move, the trash, the loss, the end. When the privilege of “belongings” is no longer yours to even consider. When the loss and trauma becomes normalized.

Our poor mama and uncle led liberation school Deecolonize Academy located on the liberated Ohlone Lisjan land us landless peoples at POOR Magazine call Homefulness went on a field trip to report and support for POOR Magazine’s revolutionary journalism class. All of us formerly houseless, currently houseless poverty mama and youth skolaz , whose Black, Brown, unhoused and disabled lives endlessly struggle with eviction, poverty, racism and different forms of Amerikkklan oppression, false borders and poLice terror and community violence, were sadly really natural for us to make this series of horrible crisis decisions, as we rolled through each mock station.  

“Imagine you are stateless,” the tour guide called out as she directed us to different sides of a tall erected fence in the installation. “You are an IDP,.. an international displaced person,” no nation will claim you, no nation will protect you,”

“You mean like me, like Afro-indigenous peoples here,” sis-star warrior, co-teacher at Decolonize Academy and co-founder of Kiss My Black Arts Tracey Bell-Borden, said to me under her breath. “Our Black and Brown bodies always under attack by the state, never protected, never respected..” her voice trailed off and we both got quiet.

International displaced person or IDP’s…as i stood behind that fake fence I thought wouldn’t this be a logical title for Black, Brown and indigenous folks endlessly predated on by the poLice and the politricksters, peoples like Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat and Amilcar Perez Lopez and Jessica Nelson Williams.  And unhoused, criminalized, displaced folks in this stolen indigenous territory ruled over by the land-stealers, banksters and real estate snakes, who thanks to the buying, selling and profiting off of mother earth have made it impossible to afford the basic human right of safe, affordable housing in most urban cities in the United Snakes Families like me and my mama who were permanently outside for over 10 years of my childhood and later when i was a single mama with my infant sun.  

“Now you can only bring two things, and you have 2 seconds to decide,” as she spoke we all numbly dropped our cards, leaving things we would have needed to live, eat and survive. Not because it made sense or was a good decision, but like so many of our brother and sister international refugees, were being told, we had to leave. Cards with food, coins, tools, and ID’s were dropped numbly by all of us into a barrell and we all shuffled off to the next to last installations.

“This is one of the most important parts of what MSF provides in refugee camps, it’s the clean water and sanitation tent,” our guide proceeded to show us an extremely simple shower and water station cobbled together with plastic water bottles and canvas that all derived from a large box of imported clean water that MSF brought to all the camps they supported. Again this was exactly what unhoused folks here need. At every unhoused encampment, folks are criminalized for the sole act of relieving their bodily fluids. Every time a poverty skola is asked directly what they need, we always ask for a porta pottie.

“Where can we pee?” as she spoke about the urgent need for the sanitation to keep everyone in the camps healthy, my mind jumped to the endless attacks on unhoused, disabled Black elders of Aunti Frances Self-Help Hunger Program just to have and keep one porta pottie in a North Oakland “public” park in a neighborhood they were all from and now were displaced from, due to high-speed land-grabs of all of Oakland and now reside in what my mama Dee used to call the card-board motels. The installation of working and maintained porta potties is one of the things that made the self-determined Here/There encampment in Berkeley so beautiful and logical and insane for the Berkeley politricksters to remove.

And then we were directed to the last “station” which was actually a tent. My heart heavy with me and mama’s own street housing and the extreme and non-stop police harassment and DPW removals (called “sweeps”) of tent encampments from Frisco to Berkeley to Oakland, i walked slowly into this station. All of us sat quietly in front of this, the last story as the tour guide spoke.

“This is the story of a young girl, a teenager, who was an IDP in Rohinga, she showed up at the gate of a refugee camp after having five minutes to flee her village out her uncles back window because she would have been killed after her parents had been killed. When she arrived at the refugee camp which she ran and walked all the way to with just the clothes on her back, they wouldn’t let her in, so she, having Nowhere else to GO…Nowhere Else to Goooo, Nowhere Else to Go ( my mind stuck here, as that is what we houseless, displaced, evicted elders and families always say, feel, face,) slept outside the gate, unsheltered in the mud and rain. For weeks. Until she became seriously ill with cholera and almost died. Then they let her in. Then they let her in… Then they let her in..

“After getting treatment and healing several weeks later, she woke up one morning and decided to try to get her  life back together. She had been going to culinary school in her village before her family was murdered and she was forced to flee. So one morning, after getting all her books and things ready, she got dressed, got her hair fixed, her shoes and socks on and walked toward the door of the tent, and then stopped, paralyzed by fear and trauma and turned around. She could not leave…. paralyzed by fear and trauma, she could not leave. At this point, my chest tensed up, my head started to pound, my heart started to race and i couldnt breathe. tears streamed down my face. I began violently shaking. I couldnt move in my metal chair. my sun and the other youth skolaz at our small school surrounded me, holding my hand and repeating, “its going to be ok Mama tiny,”

My mama, a torture survivor, whose own teenage immigrant, abused mama had tried to kill her, and who barely survived extreme abuse in foster homes and orphanages, could not leave the house, even when we had no house. I was her sole caregiver, i held her through that torture, that terror, everyday as her daughter, until the day she transitioned. It was why she could no longer work after being laid off, “one more little murder of the soul, Lisa,” she would whisper, and then grip my arm and then just sit down. She tried so hard, just like this young warrior, she tried so many times. And yet she could never overcome that terror. She could never leave the car, the doorway, the tent, and then eventually the apartment once we were finally re-housed.

“The MSF offers mental health treatment to folks in the camps as well, we are still working with this young woman, and she is still trying,”

As the tour guide wound down, the stories of 100 year old evicted elder Iris Canada who died within two days of being forced from her home, of Elaine Turner, Ron Likkers and so many more elders whose lives are destroyed, whose bodies and lives are abused by the violence of Ellis Act evictions that plagues the land-grabs of the Bay Area and causes so many of us poor and working class families, elders and folks to become unhoused.

“Have you ever considered the “refugees” right here, right around your installation?,” we asked the tour guide at the end of the tour pointing to several tents across the street near the state building.

She didn’t really have anything to say. she nodded her head as we explained the situation of so many people in poverty right here.

As we all walked away slowly, in a daze, I  pondered our own state of being IDP’s. The connections between the original peoples colonization and genocide. The way that those same settler colonizer laws inform poLice culture that terrorizes Black and Brown peoples, that endlessly removes and displaces and criminalizes poor and houseless elders and families from their communities of origin and legislates the so-called public land so its never for the public good. And how this same empire and stolen state supports wealth hoarders and starts and funds wars all across Mama Earth so peoples from Yemen to Palestine, Sudan to San Francisco we are always “forced to move” and all becoming IDP's

Since 1951, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been working to provide free healthcare for refugees and internally displaced people. I had just learned this today when myself, along with my class, went to a workshop created by MSF to inform the city and community of Oakland what they do around the world.

They had us go through a mock simulation of what it would be like to go on these journeys that these refugees go through having to discard certain items and make hard decisions. Toward the end of the tour, MSF showed more of what they provided to help along the way. 

One of the stops was explaining what it was like, crossing the Mediterranean into Greece on a boat made for fifteen and holding one hundred and fifty.  Another station told us what it was like for people to have to be forced out of their house and have to choose five things to bring in a matter of seconds. I could relate to that one because I was n that experience many times in my life when my mother and I were forcefully evicted from apartments and houses.

In the beginning of the workshop, they gave us a passport type of thing that told us where we-we came from. I was from Honduras. The main reason why most people are migrating from Honduras is that of the high murder and homicide rate from the cartels and gangs.

I have been thinking of you.  There’s an emptiness since you left us.  I do not speak merely of your physical presence--the presence of an elder whose mere gestures and silence spoke of the community that was built by hands such as yours—a community that is being taken away from us;  but a presence that was as real as any tourist landmark—more real, in fact, because you spoke to us, to our core of what it means to be an elder, a black woman in San Francisco. You refused to be silenced.  Postcard images are flat and tailored made for the whimsy of those who are just passing through.  Perhaps the words, “Since you left us” is inappropriate, for it betrays the truth of what you were burdened with in the last years—last moments of your life.  You were taken from us, your memories and your life—the years that wrote itself in the creases of your face, the aroma of your kitchen, the colors that surrounded and bloomed in your living room—minimized and disrespected in the ugliest way in an attempt to erase your presence from our landscape in the name of making money at any cost.  To those who bought your building, you were the “furniture that came with the place”—an old lady that “needed to go”--because there were units that needed condo-converting and you were old--there wasn't space for you and what you represented.  We know better.  I needn’t repeat how ugly the city was in your eviction struggle, allowing a 100 year old woman to be evicted; sheriff’s locking you out of your home while you were away at a community senior program.  This is San Francisco?  San Francisco is a city of facelifts and buzzwords—beautify, renew—words that get tossed around a whole lot.  But this beauty is surface beauty only.  The fault lines are hidden, invisible to many but they break through just as sure as the fog eventually breaks.  As rich as this city is, it is evident that its infrastructure is falling apart—that of civility, decorum, community—those things that connect us as human beings. Iris, I am ashamed of this city and I am ashamed of how it treated you and the legacy that was you, that was your community—without so much as a thank you.  This city lives with a poverty of human connectedness. We needn’t intellectualize this—it is abound.  Iris, we miss you.  The roots you left are still strong.  We still feel your presence—we have not forgotten you—those of us who love this city, those of us who don’t forget the connectedness the city has to our lives in real ways that can be breathed and tasted and felt and touched, beyond commercial exchanges mediated by the digital parade that gives the illusion of connectedness.  Iris, you lived 100 years and every day I walk in this city and see 100 lifetimes in the faces living in the cold--broken but still here.  Iris, we want to push onward but how do we?  How do we throw off the blanket of indifference that smothers this city?  Iris, the broken bodies, minds and spirits are piling up under a full moon fit for a postcard addressed to no one.  Iris, we miss you, we haven’t forgotten you or the city that forgot you.  How can we forget?  How can we forget your face?  How can we forget your voice?  How can we forget what the city allowed to happen to you?  How can we forget your so-called neighbors and landlord who wanted you out?  How can we forget such abuse of an elder?  We are hungry for your words, your wisdom, your heart.  Speak to us, Iris.  We need you.

On September 29, 2017 the Appellant Division of San Francisco Superior Court heard the housing case filed by Appellant Gavin against Parkmerced Investors Properties, LLC.

Appellant Gavin alleged in Appellant's brief that Judge Donald Sullivan did not have jurisdiction of the subject matter to hear her case and his decision is void under the law.

Appellant Gavin discovered in the copy of the court's record that Appellant Gavin received for preparation of  the appeal there were very important items missing such as: the original contract for Appellant Gavin's apartment, the Housing Assistance Payment contract required for subsidized housing signed by landlord  Parkmerced and San Francisco Housing Authority and there was no disclosure that Appellant Gavin was a recipient of subsidized housing from the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development.  In other words fraud was perpetrated upon the court.

Parkmerced's attorney David Wasserman states that he followed the state law for evictions in the pleadings.  Attorney Wasserman also signed an declaration stating that Parkmerced looked really hard but could not find the original contract for Appellant Gavin's apartment.  This is also a breach of Appellant Gavin's substantive procedural due process rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.  Parkmerced did not follow HUD's termination requirements that mandatory in their pleadings.

Appellant Gavin alleged several breaches by Parkmerced in the court documents and eviction.  Appellant Gavin stated that under California law for delayed discovery there is no statute of limitation of an err made by a judge that can be proven to be void.  Due to further pending litigation in the case,  Appellant Gavin will not discuss other reasons stated at the hearing.

Appellant Gavin also stated that the actions of Judge Ronald Quidachay were unprofessional and violates Appellant Gavin's family civil rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

On October 24, 2016 according to Appellant Gavin Judge Ronald Quidachay who is the head of the Housing Court in Dept. 501 at San Francisco Superior Court (SFSC) said to Appellant Gavin, "shut up!" "Get out of his courtroom and take the matter to federal court!"  "He has heard an appeal on this case once before and no matter what new evidence Appellant Gavin had he did not care and will not hear anything about this case again."

Appellant Gavin found these statements to be so egregious and shocking that Appellant Gavin had nightmares about being denied access to the courtroom which is a constitutional right. 

Appellant Gavin was so distraught by Judge Quidachay's appalling behavior that Appellant Gavin filed an appeal on the last day to hear this new evidence.

Appellant Gavin alleges the judicial system has an innate bias against low-income people whom they consider poor litigants.  Low-income litigants are treated with disdain, judged on how they look, the clothes they wear and their language skills.  The SFSC  also dismisses the courtroom reporter and there are unprofessional comments made to these litigants.

The courtroom clerk does not type the unprofessional remarks made by judges because they are suppose to be made off record.  Low-income people should always have at least five people in the courtroom with them or a courtroom reporter if they can afford it.

On July 02, 2012 the day of the court hearing from Appellant Gavin's wrongful eviction case, Appellant Gavin was at SFSC for two hours in arbitration.  In a conflict of interest Appellant Gavin fired her attorney who was insufficient.  Due to heart palpitations Appellant Gavin left the court.  Judge Katherine Feinstein sent the case to be heard by Judge Donald Sullivan.

Judge Donald Sullivan dismissed the jury trial aspect of the case that Appellant Gavin had filed and proceeded with a bench hearing.   Despite not having authenticated evidence, a competent witness, a signature of Appellant Gavin on any document and no jurisdiction over the subject matter, Judge Donald Sullivan ruled in Parkmerced's favor, granting an eviction and issued a writ of possession for the apartment.  All of these actions committed by the judge are a deprivation of Appellant Gavin Family's civil rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution. 

Parkmerced discarded Appellant Gavin's Family property without notice in violation of Appellant Gavin's Family substantive procedural due process. This action is also a violation of Appellant Gavin's Family civil rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution under the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

The appellant division of San Francisco Superior Court has 90 days to make a decision in Appellant Gavin's case.

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.

Editors/Mamaz Note: The already victimized poor families, elders and disabled folks who were displaced in the West Oakland fire of March 27th have been told they have to vacate their temporary shelter at 3233 Market street in West Oakland. The Following is a report by youth skolaz at Deecolonize Academy

The Deadly Fire by Zair

Me and my friends went to San Pablo street where a deadly fire happened on march 27th 2017 my mom, Audrey Candy corn was told all the victims had to leave their temporary shelter today, Wed, April 5th.

Where the fire happened it smelled like bbq. Four people died, one person dired . It landed on them. The people only have one day to figure where they are going live and stay.

Devastation by Tibu

The car was stuffy as all us Youth and adult poverty and youth skolaz from POOR Magazine and Deecolonize Academy  rode down to the site of the fire in West Oakland on San Pablo. This fire happened on March 27, 2017 and displaced over 150 people and killed 4.

As we drove down the street of the fire we noticed for ourselves the devastation that wrecked this West Oakland community. The front of the building was charred black and the roof was completely burned off. Workers were in the process of breaking the windows to crush the house.

A man walking by noticed that we were looking and writing and told us that it is common knowledge that the landlord of this building intended it to burn down due to faulty alarm systems like, a locked down fire escape, shut down sprinklers and no fire detectors.

After that we drove over to the shelter where the fire victims were staying, we saw members of the Red Cross “helping” out the people. Audrey Candy-Corn, the real helper of this situation and the mother of two of our fellow classmates, was talking with some of the victims.

Now, Audrey has been helping since the fire killed four of the city's residents and longtime community members. She has been staying long nights and giving support and materials to the displaced families.

“I was told yesterday that the fire victims would be leaving 3233 Market St.(Youth Center)” she said with great sadness a lot more anger in her eyes as she told us those fateful words ” I was told to help the “transition” of the people moving because I was a known figure in the community”

In the end, they are still trying to kick our families out slowly but surely and we are still fighting for their rights.

The Burned Building

by Tristen

We all went to San Pablo street to take notes and learn in our journalism class with teacher Tiny and Teacher Muteado. We saw the burned Building. Tiny and her mom lived there when there was no tibu. 

The war on Yemeni people is a horrifying and disgusting thing. But, what we have to remember is that even though the Saudi government are the ones shooting the missiles, this war was started by the United States. This war is fully backed and funded by the Trump Administration. The reason for the last couple of wars that have been going on in the Middle East is because of the oil content there. The United States Government will stop at nothing to get that oil. They have started wars to start our cars.

When our teams did this research we were trying to find out some of the ways that we youth in Oakland are connected to youth in Yemen.

First, this is what’s going on there: many of all casualties of the people of Yemen are children; 2.8 million people have lost their homes; and 1.8 million people – mostly children – are starving.

One of the main things we found is that the US backs this war. While Obama wanted to block the weapons trade in Saudi Arabia, Trump wants to unblock the trade. 110 billion dollars was given to the Saudis by Trump to kill people in Yemen.

The Saudi people may be the ones who are shooting the missiles but they are funded by America and the United Kingdom. The UK has donated up to 8.5 billion dollars in weapons to the Saudi people to make sure they are killing the Yemenis. 2 billion dollars are for aircraft bombers alone.

We also found out in our Research that the US and UK are acting above the law when they support the Saudi War in Yemen.

 “A child is not your child,” said Mr. Alsuhja of Alsuhja Market located in Deep East Oakland across the street from Homefulness/POOR Magazine. He told us this as he was explaining the concept of CPS to us and how it is different in Yemen. We went to his market to ask him about his experience and life in Yemen. We decided to interview him to get a first-person voice on Yemen and outlook on the life there.

In America, if you hit your child you will get them taken away because it is illegal. It’s the so-called law. But if you hit your kid in Yemen it is okay. Honestly, I think that it should be illegal anyway because kids can become scared of their parents and not think they are loved, but I also think that it should be legal because children need to be disciplined.
 
I lost my own 17-year-old brother from gun violence in the streets of Oakland. We hope the violence stops in Yemen

In closing, Yemen is an oppressed country right now. It’s wrong that they are being targeted for their resources, and we respect them because they are standing strong in the face of constant Bombing attacks.

We Youth Skolaz at Deecolonize Academy respect your resistance to the Empires.

Did and has the anti police brutality movement left behind one of the biggest groups that have been killed by police since the early 1980's when I got involved. This includes people with all types of disabilities from activist groups like October 22nd to Mothers Against Police Brutality to BLM but not only activist groups but even scarier high profile police brutality lawyers and of course mainstream media who still have any deep knowledge of disabilities/Deafness?

And I'm not just talking about awareness but more institutional and community change with people with disabilities and who are Deaf leading the way. And not only policies and White papers but also cultural work. The disabled community can learn from the Deaf community. After John T. Williams, a Deaf Native American wood-carving artist was shot down by Seattle police, the Deaf Native community challenged the mainstream media about the story they put out on John T. Williams. They also put together songs, art and statements around this police killing. The Deaf Native American community stayed on this killing and with other community-builders forced the city to at least put up a pole to honor Williams’ life.

Another example from the Deaf community on police brutality that the disabled community can learn from especially now is the popular suggestion from many cities and some advocates is an i.d.. A Black Deaf elder, Pearl Pearson, 64, who was pulled over on Jan. 30, 2014 and tased although he had the Deaf symbol on his license plate and also on his driver i.d. He didn’t have time to show the officer his hearing impaired placard so that he could communicate with the officers. So even with an i.d Deaf people still get abused by police.

Years ago, a friend of mine and father of the Deaf Hip-Hop movement here in the US, Wawa, was apart of a play highlighting police brutality against the Deaf community and even on the independent film screen, a Black Deaf filmmaker, Jade Bryan also put her camera on this issue of police brutality against Deaf people.

It seems even Deaf organizations are more quicker to respond to police brutality cases than disabled orgs both locally and nationally. It also helps that the Deaf community has a well known movie star, Marlee Matlin, who has been vocal on police killings of Deaf people. Now upcoming Deaf artist and American Sign Language interpreter has been hired by Chance The Rapper, Matt Maxey - put out this video, 10 ASL signs all Police Officers should know. And there are more examples that point to the Deaf community having success on responding faster, providing cultural work and community advocacy however success in the political arena i.e. legislative powers on this issue is still not noticeable yet. I still think that the disability community can learn a lot from the success of the Deaf community in this area on how to respond and their cultural work around police brutality and abuse.

Edited by Heather Watkins

Pic:  Where Is Hope (Documentary on police brutality against people wth disabilities) painting made for the project showing police brutality against people with disabilities 2016

Wait!  Since the late 80’s I’ve been protesting, advocating etc on police brutality against people with disabilities however today is totally different.  I am use  to reading and advocating for Black/Brown adults with disabilities but today our Black/Brown youth with disabilities are the growing cases of state violence in schools, on the streets, in group homes, locked up in jail, mental health facilities and even in their on homes when the police are called to "help" but a lot of times end of dead or abuse.  

In the 80's and 90's I've volunteered and worked in non-profits of people with disabilities and worked in recreation, summer camps, after school programs to I.E.P. to respite to big brother programs but in this climate of state violence isn't it time for new disabled youth/young adults programs that helps all disabled youth not only avoid state violence but to bring healing, a voice, advocacy and artistic avenues to young disabled victims of state violence?  In 2000 I wrote the article, The Blood Of Disabled Youth and poem Buried Voices (below) speaking about the abuse and killings of/on disabled youth.  Now it is 2017!

Has there been studies, cultural work, activism on state violence toward youth with disabilities especially poor/Black/Brown youth with disabilities by youth themselves?  Are our movements, cultural work and activism from police brutality to the school to prison pipeline to police in schools to institutionalize living leaving out disabled youth??

Everybody changes when they have kids or are around kids however it seems like our disability community has done very little when it comes to state violence against youth with disabilities not only activism but providing programs after the targedy.  Is it time to update what the disability non-profit industry provide to our youth?  Is it time to really challenge youth programs in general on this topic?  

One thing is clear and that is state abuse haven't stopped matter-of-fact it has only increase in the last five to ten years especially police brutality and abuse at schools...

Remember in late 2016, when there was an spike of cases of brutality cases against Black/Brown youth and young adults with disabilities from police and school resource officers.  Headlines like these are increasing daily even now in 2017!

1. Autistic teen gets beat up by cops in the Bronx Troy Canael

2. Mom Regrets Calling 9-1-1 for Help After Police Showed Up and Tasseled Her Nonverbal Autistic Son. Miguel  Torruella

3.  Autism Is Not A Crime’: Transit Police Beat St. Paul Teen During Arrest

Marcus Abrams

4. 11-Year-Old Autistic Student Charged with Felony Assault Kayleb Moon-Robinson

5.  A ten year old autistic Black girl was pin to the ground and handcuffed by school police for climbing a tree.

6.  Black teenager autistic girl tased at a Hip-Hop concert while having a grand male seizure.

These are only a small view of the bigger picture of police brutality that has been on the backs of Black/Brown youth with disabilities with very little or no reaction from mainstream movements, media etc..  

So where are the services, cultural expression, activism, support and media for the above disabled youth who were victims of police brutality?

With the increase of not only the act of state violence but policies that target youth who are poor and of color that leads to abuse by the state on the streets and in lock down facilities, the time is over due to really change or increase radical youth programs that deals with state violence by and for disabled youth and young adults especially Black/Brown/Poor disabled youth and young adults.

 Sadly my 2000  poem, Buried Voices is still relavent today in 2017 burt I ask like I did almost seventeen years ago, “is anyboddy listening, does anybody care?”

Buried Voices

The next generation

Is being plucked off one by one

On the streets, in schools and in prison

Little ones snuggled

In small coffins

Buried voices have many stories

Voices from down under

Crying for their mothers and fathers

Had a lot to say but no one bother to listen

Buried voices speaking in harmony

Tossing and turning in the grave

They want their justice

Hunting the soulless

Young spirits creeping in the minds of the old and wary

Their hit list is endless

Years of abuse

Caught up in the system

And can't get loose

Black, young and disabled

Always been labeled

Home was not stable

Elders set in their ways

They want to lock us away

Can't teach old dogs new tricks

Christopher, Seth and Dion

Blacks disabled boys can't grow up to be Black disabled men

I'm one of the chosen few

Buried in mainstream news

Buried in the community

Can't breath, can't hear, can't see

Layer after layer

Ism after ism

Wrapped up like a mummy

Buried voices are singing in the cemetery

No rest for the restless

They are voicing their short and painful history

Buried voices rising with the sun

Young disabled corps walking the earth

Talking back and heading north

Now everybody is scared

Running in fear

Cause judgment day is here

Parents, teachers and politicians

Listen to the voices

They demand your attention

Buried voices

Are always with me

They are in my head guiding my pen

I write with the blood of disabled youth

I'm their agent

Writing and speaking their messages

And they told me to tell you

Many are still in pain

Bullets and fists falling down on them like pouring rain

Poems can't bring them back from the dead

Do you hear that, buried voices want me to speak the raw truth

This poem wants you to think with your heart first then your head

The truth hurts

But it also heals

We need to get real

But I feel the tension

Every time I mention the reason

Why I wrote Buried Voices

(This article, Blood of Disabled Youth, was published in 2000 under Poor Magazine)

What the hell is going on? Can you answer me? First, it was disabled adults of color. Now, disabled youth of color are under attack in schools and on the streets. Do you hear that? Disabled youth are yelling and crying for help and attention. Are we going to go on like everything is o.k.? Well I'm here to tell you everything is not O.K. The next generation of disabled leaders won't be if we continue our silence on the street violence and abuse that has been a reality to many.

In November of this year (2000) I came across three cases in San Francisco mainstream newspapers dealing with street violence, rape and physical abuse of disabled youth. All three cases have similarities and differences. All three appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the victims were all disabled youth of color and all three victims were overpowered by more than one person or an elder.

The first case was the long-,awaited court case and verdict of a 1995 beating and stomping attack of Seth Woods, an African American, mentally disabled young adult. Seth Woods was attacked by five Samoan youths while walking home. After five years of waiting, the Woods family received their justice. On November 9th a San Francisco jury returned verdicts of second-degree murder, torture and sodomy.

The second case is recent and very heartbreaking. A twelve-year-old African American girl with learning disabilities was sexually assaulted at two different schools in Berkeley, CA. The first assault involved nine classmates and took place after school on October 25th. According to the news reports, a pack of nine boys allegedly dragged the girl to 11 different locations, sexually assaulting her for more than four hours. Then, on Nov. 8th, her second day at a new school in Berkeley, a 13-year-old lured the girl to a secluded area on the school campus and raped her.

I came across the most recent case when I confronted a headline at breakfast screaming "Police Probe, S.F. Boys Claim Teacher Threw a Yardstick at Him." At that moment I dropped my spoon in my oatmeal and screamed, "What in the hell?" The article said that a sixth-grade special education teacher threw a yardstick at a 9-year-old special education student. The stick hit the boy's face and caused scratches under his right eye and on his nose. Now the teacher is placed on leave, pending an investigation by the district.

The above cases are only recent cases, but this is not a new trend. In 1988 Tony G., a 13-year-old Samoan boy with Down Syndrome, was walking home with his favorite toy, a toy gun. A San Francisco police officer thought the gun was real, so he shot and killed him.

These cases are not only in California. The unbearable story of Marcus Hogg of Texas made me cry. In June of this year Hogg, an African American disabled teenager was approached by two white teens who proceeded to tie his hands behind his chair and his legs to the legs of the chair. Then the two teens placed a noose around his neck and joked about throwing the rope over the rail to hang him. Like my articles on the abuse and brutality toward disabled adults of color, the above issue has been hush-hush in the disabled communities and communities of color.

So what is the answer to the violence and brutality towards disabled, especially those of color? I have been hearing that disabled youth should not be mainstreamed with their non-disabled peers. Parents and people with disabilities fought for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other special education laws that promote and support the rights of parents and disabled youth to receive a free appropriated education along side their non-disabled peers. We have been fighting too long to return to "separate but equal," to be locked away in institutions.

What we need in both public and private schools is formal collaborations with grassroots organizations that have the skills and experience to advocate and educate the student body and the administration.

Teachers, students, school administrators and principals can all benefit from hands-on workshops, awareness trainings and classes on disability rights, history, culture, self-esteem building, role play etc. from organizations like The Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute that are led by disability scholars who have experienced these situations first-hand.

The issue of a lack of hands-on training is a common factor across the board, from police to teachers, on how to deal with people, students and youth offenders with disabilities. We need to look further than just training and call it like it is, abuse, murder! We can't afford to lose one more disabled youth.

My name is Jewel Stroman. Last summer I went from being homeless with my family to obtaining a 2 story brick house in 60 days and becoming a Community Activist. I started a movement advocating not only for my family, but for all families placed at Motel 6 by DC Dept of Human Services & Virginia Williams Family Resource Center. Families sat in filthy living conditions, rodent-infested motel rooms forgotten about by city officials for over 8 months. I joined forces with ABC 7News and We Act Radio and Mayor Bowser and got these families into housing. My fight for adequate housing and proper services for DC families is ongoing.

My family is housed under the Community Partnerships FSRP Rapid Re-Housing Program. This past summer I single-handedly started a movement advocating not only for my family (who had been placed by the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center into a Motel 6), but for every other family at Motel 6. Many of these families had been in Motel placement for over 8 months !!! With no access to case managers (as promised by Virginia Williams and DHS), stuck in a run-down Motel with an infestation of  Rats, Mice and Roaches, and no access to kitchens or refrigerators.

I caught the attention of ABC 7 News and joined forces with Investigative Reporter Scott Taylor to bring attention to this problem. ABC 7 News aired 3 different news stories on the families in Motel 6 in August, September and December. I also did a Radio Interview with Monique Brown from We Act Radio and was in talks with Renee Nash, producer at WHUR 96.3 FM Radio . I started a petition and went on the front lines advocating for my families. Due to my actions, all of the families were finally moved into housing in March. Most recently, my actions caught the attention of DC Mayor Bowser, whom I had a meeting with in March to address my concerns about how DC treats and houses homeless families.

We are currently assigned to Edgewood Brookland Collaborative. In April I contacted Katrina Coates (irector @ Edgewood) in regards to my water being cut off. The Agency agreed to pay the balance of $683 due to restore service. I was contacted by staff there who asked for a recent bill, which I provided via email, and was told the bill would be paid. To date the bill has not been paid despite a Promissory Note written by Edgewood. The water is now back off.

I have 4 children in my home, one of which is a 10 month old, and I am also pregnant. Upon contacting Edgewood Brookland I was told that per the Director's’ wishes Edgewood would only pay the $683 they initially agreed to pay. I reminded them of the late fees, which they agreed to pay. I submitted a copy of the ledger and my Water bill from May, which included the rollover balance of the $683. However, I am being told that Edgewood will not pay the May or June bill. May's bill was $224. Once your total bill goes over a certain amount your utilities are disconnected. Since Edgewood Brookland failed to pay the $683 plus the reconnection fee from April the majority of the money I now owe is from that . Had that portion been paid I would only owe a balance of about $300 and my services would not have been disconnected. The Services were disconnected due to the high amount now owed. I could have set up a payment plan for the $300 from May and June but the bill exceeds the amount the water company would be willing to apply a payment plan to, and once services have been disconnected you are no longer eligible for a payment plan. They want the money to be paid in full to restore services.

I don't understand how an agency who claims to be for families can leave a mother and her children without water and refuse to pay the balance due to restore services.

“You are a fraud….” the words scrawled across the lighted screen seemed to drip with blood, It was one of over a hundred face-book posts, text messages and reply all emails spoken about me and the organization my houseless mama and I co-founded. Through the experience and ever after, my heart was broken, my soul destroyed and every injury, scrape or cut, real or metaphoric i received throughout my already too hard life of houselessness, domestic violence, abuse, incarceration and poverty was triggered. I was suicidal and unable to function. Had it not been for the strength of my village, my community and my family i would have not made it out alive from this time.

My whole life, I didn’t have a pot to piss in, like my mama used to say, all i had was my good name, my community capital as i call it, and this person had destroyed it

A single parent, a woman who appeared to be in need of support, a woman like all of us in our poor people-led movement, had now begun a campaign of hate and lies, unmatched by the worst politrickster or klan member. Claiming she was abused by us, the people that loved her and collaborated with her and provide her and her child housing. a flurry of lies began to stream on the digital streets, hitting a crescendo when she called her “community” out to physically beat us up after one of her false claims about what we had allegedly done to her. Her campaign continued for over a year. Each week her threats and accusations seemed to shape shift and morph into grander accusations with larger implications. And the strangest part of all of it was, people believed her. Even people who knew us, who saw our work, who witnessed our truth, my work, my truth, for decades.

In the 21st Century the destruction and dismantling of a community, vision, movement, revolution or individual can begin with a mere click of a fingertip or a tiny cluster of words and symbols splattered across the digital streets.

People and movement destruction or infiltration as it is sometimes called has always been somewhat easy, it just got ridiculously easier. Rooted in the manipulation of human emotions, love, jealousy, fear, greed, loneliness, its purveyors have an easy job. As indigenous and colonized peoples our emotions are even more raw- our triggers more immediate, our trauma more intense and our PTSD more extreme.  Play on any one or a group of these and we are destroyed. We are sexual, physical, verbal, psychological, emotional, and spiritual abuse victims. We are survivors both ancestrally and currently of every type of violation to our bodies, minds, spirits, tongues, traditions and souls. And the abuse continues, This is not something in the past, but rather a current and real state of our lives and communities.

Many of us try to live something different, walk something different  to heal ourselves, our communities, our children and ourselves and yet we juggle our own colonization in the process, our spiritual backpacks filled to the brim with tendrils of things trying to take us down. Causing us to repeat the adage, who needs enemies when you have ourselves

Along comes something that sounds like any number of our personal struggles and we are there. Lost in the river of hurt-hate-anger-CONfusion-Jealousy-Fear-violence.

In my case, and the organization that is my home, it snuck up on us, brought into our poor and indigenous people-led circle  by someone who looked like us - talked like us- be liked us. But not sure what in the end they really wanted from us.  Did they work for the state, the “man” or just themselves? Was the goal to destroy us for the sake of destruction as in a state-funded infiltration or was it for personal gain or to inflict personal pain- we will never really know and now really don’t care…Moving on, doing the work, living life as we always had, walking in truth and realness and liberation is what we did and continue to do.

It began as it always does with claims that we had perpetrated against them when all we had done was supported, collaborated, lifted up, loved and respected them.

But the violence didn’t really start until the words, illusions, accusations and lies hit the digital streets. Specifically the social media networks that welcome chisme, shit-talk, gossip, hateration- and infiltration with the love of a long lost friend launched a tsunami of abuse, character defamation, destruction and loss from people that had already suffered so much.

In some circles this process is called cyber-bullying resulting in the “bullied” to suffer depression, suicidal tendencies, fear, and sometimes, in worst cases leading to their death. By the same token, others swear this is merely truth-telling, “exposing” airing of grievances, shattering lies and “speaking up”. One thing i think we can all agree on is the long winding, extensive digital roads, avenues, cul de sacs and highways are extremely dangerous for this information to travel on. There is absolutely no demand of accountability from the accuser. No expectation of corroboration or process. A statement or series of statements are made and it is taken for providence because it has been said, tweeted, face-craked, texted, etc.

No PoLice- No kkkorts - No social media?
Throughout herstory, peoples from all four corners have had processes that one should go through before statements are acted on, believed, trusted and upheld. These processes are not settler colonizer kkkorts, poLice, CPS , APS or Sheriffs. These are indigenous circles of ceremony, accountability and redress like the Elephant councils we hold at POOR Magazine. They are hard and long and in person and necessary often cause us already colonized, trauma-filled, broken folks perpetrate, hurt and abuse each other often, There is accountabilty. Accountability for self and actions.

The act of airing an act of purported wrongness through the digital streets is not indigenous or rooted in any revolution, and yet peoples who commit to not engage the state seem to see the digital streets as a perfect option. Due to its ease it seems non-punitive, un-poLiced space. But its Not. In fact due to the immediacy of its broad access it is probably one of the easiest and most deadly forms of attack we have experienced to date of a persons character, which in many cases can be literally deadly

Two years Later
Fast forward two years the person who tried to destroy me and our movement is committing these acts again. Against another human, an elder, care-giver, and person committed to working in community for change and liberation, advocacy and healing. An elder who has never done anything but help folks who need help.

But she is just one case, there has been several attacks of persons and community through the hyways and byways of the global and local digital streets, by a lot of people, who choose to use the digital streets to destroy character and ultimately community as though it was water coming from a faucet. it has reached an epidemic.

Antidote of Accountability rooted in our ancestors
Myself and several other indigenous women have been working on something different. Something very old, rooted in our indigenous ancestors from all four corners practices of accountability. Accountability, love, liberation and responsibility for each other, our children and ourselves. This is not the mere trickle down grant-pimped notion of restorative justice or mediation, but actual protocols to community care and deep accountability.

As broken peoples breaking each other, the challenge for something to hold all this breaking is a 21st century crisis. We, like all of us at POOR magazine, are constantly reminded, will continue to hurt the peoples closest to us, like all of us oppressed peoples always do, but the way to move from and inside that hurt must not be the 2 second character kills on the digital streets,

In fact the quickest way to disempower the digital streets violence is to challenge the collective belief and acceptance of the claims, stories and accounts by the readers, consumers and watchers. We must as a community be committed to slowing down, questioning the multiple messages and messengers and remember with attacks, vague, overt and otherwise, there are always more sides to the story, problem and accusation. And often times, if not all the time, these streets are being used as another form of soft po’Licing, with no accountability, no respect and no principles but the use of extreme character violence against the accused.

In essence the first and most powerful form of offense to this post-colonial violence lies with the ways we as a community receive, consume and react to the information. The process to true community change, as always, begins with us, the collective, strengthened and inter-dependent community moving against the insanely accessible, immediate driven social media.   

For more information on the protocols created by a multi-nationed indigenous women circle, or to request a training for your group, school, organization or institution contact poormag@gmail.com

RoofLESS Radio in West Oakland talking to the houseless people the REAL revolutionary the ones braving it out in the hard cold of the streets. Take in some of their knowledge and watch the RoofLESS Radio.

We walk back and forth in a jail-cel everyday -its called your doorways
tent cities
Bus benches
and Metal chairs in the emergency room
waiting to be seen…excerpt from the PoorHouse to the JailHouse by tiny

“Prison abolition is different than penal abolition- we don’t just want to get rid of the structures- we want to get rid of the whole system that functions to destroy people, said Ashanti Alston, Black Panther and penal abolitionist.

POOR Magazine had the blessing of listening to Ashanti and so many more freedom fighters at the 17th International Conference on Penal Abolition held in New Bedford, Mass, aka stolen Wampanoag territory home to some of the first undocumented immigrants (pilgrims) and the ancestors of many stolen bodies. from enslaved peoples to Northern European medicine women. Suffice it to say the cries from the ancestors can be heard here. Loudly. And I laid down prayers everyday.

The conference, bumpered with the healing work of Black-led healing circle, Harriet’s Apothecary and the prayer of 1st Nations Wampanoag elder, was filled to the brim with theory seminars such as Exorcising White Supremacy Abolitionist Horizons and Failed Encounters with Solidarity alongside voices from the other side of the plantation walls being read by poets and community organizers form across Turtle Island with liberation voices like Ashanti’s calling for deep inclusion from plantation prison scholars in our movements.

At POOR Magazine we call the work to make sure our incarcerated, unhoused and criminalized voices are not only included but leading movements we are impacted by poverty scholarship and this theme began at the opening plenary with Janetta Johnson who called for incarcerated peoples to be included as life coaches and leaders in this penal abolishment movement

“We need to support Trans and non-trans incarcerated peoples inside and outside with all the support we can give them. They have deep lived knowledge, they could act as life coaches for people on the outside,” said Black Trans justice revolutionary Janetta Johnson in the opening plenary with Monica James and Woods Ervin speaking together in a beautiful circle.

Ashanti continued, “This is why its so important to include people inside in the building of a movement - to help us stay focused on this side.Today there is so much potential to take this movement to another level. My challenge is for you to take on the work of the freedom of people who have been inside for 30, 40 or 50 years,” he concluded.

“We need to help Anna Belen Montez, a Puerta Rican political prisoner,” Jose Soler, a union organizer from Boston who brought up Anna Belen as a call to action for the audience. PNN spoke to him later and he explained that Anna needs our support to get the same kind of attention as Oscar Lopez Rivera and like him now has Jan Sassier as a lawyer to fight her case.

As well, the conference highlighted the struggle of Trans peoples of color across Mama Earth. From Argentina to the United Snakkkes, Trans peoples of color in and outside the plantation walls are harassed, criminalized and killed. Many of the letters from folks inside that were read throughout the conference articulated this abuse and the need for more support. 

Unhoused Peoples as political prisoners in the jailhouse outside the razor wire plantation
“11,794 citations were issued to unhoused folks for the sole act of being unhoused in 2014 alone,” Black Panther, POOR Magazine reporter, poverty scholar and organizer with Coalition on Homelessness Bilal Ali who with revolutionary organizer Dayton Andrews, spoke to the ICOPA audience, “ They spend more money criminalizing us than housing us,” he concluded. Bilal went on to list the endless white supremacist, anti-poor people-laws put in place since the colonizers stole this land.

As Bilal and Dayton laid out the facts of the constant criminalization of us poor folks from the powerful Punishing the Poorest report by the Coalition on Homelessness I reflected on my ideas (that i presented in my workshop) that us unhoused peoples are political prisoners outside the razor wire plantation walls. As the daughter of a disabled, unhoused single, Afro-Boricua mama raised and tortured in foster homes and orphanages, trying to survive in the amerikkklan hamster wheel, trying to overcome, heal, live until she couldn’t handle one more little murder of the soul, us ending up years on the street unhoused and criminalized for the sole act of not having access to a roof, eventually landing me in jail for three months for the sole act of being unhoused. Personal is political she would say. Our political is personal. Our Imprisonment is political. Houselessness isn’t a crime. Being so tortured in your heart and soul that you can barely function, that you can barely stop from screaming, that you can’t work, pay rent, hold down plantation jobs, or sell your body, your soul or your mind, isn’t a crime, it’s the result of the violence and sickness of life in this post-colonized babylon. On either side of the razor wire fences.

“The underground cels were the same size and functioned the same as the current Secured Housing Units, one of the powerful organizers of ICOPA, Viviane Saleh - Hanna showed us imagery of a frightening place called Patience, Ghana where enslaved peoples were incarcerated, while she spoke at one of the workshops laying out the deep architectural and actual connections to the  multi-billion- dollar industry of chattel slavery and the current multi-billion dollar industry of plantation prisons. 

The Closing
After these power-FULL four days of penal abolition and resistance in this Wampanoag territory that was home to Frederick Douglass’ home and one of the sites of the underground railroad a closing speech was spoken by beautiful, fabulous sis-STAR Monica James who articulated some of the tensions felt by poverty, incarceration youth scholars who along with a few poverty scholar adults like myself and Leroy were at the conference speaking our truths. This was a testimony to the work of the penal abolition movement away from only an academic exercise into a truly impacted people-led movement, that Monica's words were felt and our stories were uplifted and exactly why the voices of us poverty scholars must not only be included but lead the work to destroy the institutions built to incarcerate and profit off us that is about us, and usually without us.

We walk back and forth in a jailhouse everyday -its called your doorways
tent cities
Bus benches
Metal chairs in the emergency room
waiting to be seen…
 
its main street outside the razor wire plantation in a cel called houselessness and poverty
Teetering on a colonized definition of safety
from scofflaws to stop and risk laws
we can barely survive one day without the violence of hate and poLice brutality

me daughter of a houseless, single mama -
sleeping on street corners, cars and not really public parks in this stolen indigenous territory
its enough to drive anyone completely craz-eee
it took my mama -
unable to unhinge from that deep well of trauma

So whats the answer -
you don’t want to see me
You would like to walk down the street cloaked in your amerikkklan lie that doesn’t include me

Yes we are political prisoners -
outside the razor wire plantations
us po folks are NEVER free
not free from our mind demons
the abuse we can’t get out our mind no matter the quantity of psycho-pharma-cology

I hold my mama in this space
rolling over her torture
daily
“My life is political
my prison is personal,” she would always say

My struggle/ our struggle is poetry
and i can’t escape these walls inside my mind
I can’t ever be free
No Matter what
i can’t ever be free

PNN-KEXU: ICOPA 17 Harriets Apothecary

PNN-KEXU: ICOPA 17 Black Panther Revolutionaries

PNN-KEXU: ICOPA 17 Black Trans Justice

PNN-KEXU: Wampanoag Herstory

PNN-KEXU: ICOPA 17 Black trans prison abolitionist leader's speak

PNN-KEXU: ICOPA 17 Wampanoag elder Opens

PNN-KEXU -the reading of incarcerated skolaz

PNN-KEXU-Free Anna Belen Montez #ICOPA17

All of Kindrerd's Nursing Homes (there are 8 in the City they all will be sold for the land..Including their Rehabilitation Centers. Non only Kindrerd, but other groups. The Federal Government (Medicare) only pays for the first 100 days, The State of California still pays on the 1970 level. The haven't increased payments since the 1970's. Let me bring you back to the 1970's. Muni was 25 cents and Minimum Wage was $2.75. The average PG&E cost for a house (a family of 3) was $35.00. This is a 5 room 2 bedroom house.One dozen eggs cost less than $1.00. An average tv was $45.00 and a family car was $2,000. Now, lets go to modern days.  At today's prices  a bus ride is $2.75. The average PG&E cost for a house (a family of 3) is  $250.00 per 5 bedroom house. A dozen Extra Large Eggs is $2.00. The average tv cost $1,000.00, and a family car is now $40,000.00.

With photo and video journalism from ‘Washington Rise with Standing Rock’ in Olympia, WA 

Earth-Feather Sovereign and her five year-old daughter Rainbow visited my home on March 6, 2017, so I could learn more about Earth-Feather’s life’s work, and about the Washington Rise with Standing Rock event in Olympia, organized by the LOK CHANTE Legal Fund.  Rainbow played with toys while her mom and I had this conversation (transcribed below).  The talk is followed by photos and video clips of the Washington Rise with Standing Rock gathering that took place Saturday, March 11, 2017.  There are links with some of the photos to learn more about Water Protecting and Indigenous Resistance happening in Washington State.

Earth-Feather Sovereign smiles walking through a mall parking lot, while holding a yellow hand-painted sign that says, “THE DRUMS BEAT FOR MOTHER EARTH.”  She is participating in a march, and her sister Morningstar is just behind her, with other community members behind them.  In the distance a sign is held up that says “soil, not oil.”

Earth-Feather:  My name is Earth-Feather Sovereign. I’m a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes here in Washington State. Traditionally when Native people introduce ourselves, we usually introduce our parents. My father is Ernest Clark, he was a former Councilman for our Tribe.  My Mother is Deanna Marcellay, she passed away a couple years ago. I am also a descendant of Chiefs and Matriarchs. The Colville Tribe is made up of thirteen Bands, and of those Bands, I am a member of the Okanogan Band, the Sanpoil Band and Nespelem Band.  Originally the Nespelem and the Sanpoil Band were part of the Okanogan Band of the Northern and Southern regions. I say Northern and Southern regions because when the government divided the United States and Canada, they put their border between our People.  So, on my Mother’s side, I’m a descendant of Chief Antoine, he’s one of the last Chiefs of our tribe.  On my paternal side, I’m a descendant of Chief James and Chief Nespelem.  Nespelem George, his Mother was one of the last Matriarchs.  Because our Tribe, we were Matriarchal before the Europeans came, we really didn’t have Chiefs, we had Spokes Peoples, Spokesmen.  But when the Europeans came they just pretty much considered them (the men) chiefs and leaders of our People when it was actually the Women who led.

When some people think of Matriarchs they get it confused with patriarchal power.  Matriarchs are like Mother clans.  They think of the best interest of their People, with Love and Compassion, not power.  One of the last Matriarchs of our people was Que-Petsa, and she also helped to advocate between our People with some of the first settlers who came through, Lewis & Clark.  So, in saying all that, that history that I have, it’s always been my passion to advocate for the best interest of my People.

Lisa:  What’s your history with activism, and is that a word you are comfortable with?  May I call you an activist?  (in conversation after this interview, Earth-Feather identified as an Awakener, see video clip #4)  

Earth-Feather:  When I think of activism, I think of Love in Action. Because I love my Indigenous People, I love all People, all People of all the four colors.  Cuz, you know, we all have Indigenous roots somewhere.  Even the Europeans have Indigenous roots, where they used to be able to use their plants and their medicines and be close to Mother Earth.  One of the things my mom told me is that “Love is work in action.”  I grew up with my Mother.  She was a single Mother with just me and my sister, Morningstar.  When I think of starting my story I usually start with my Mother’s story or even her Mother’s Mother’s story.  

My Mother, she grew up in a dysfunctional home with drugs and alcohol, and domestic violence.  She had fourteen brothers and sisters. She spent ten years at the Tribal boarding school, where she was raised by Catholic nuns and priests.  And she endured abuse while attending the boarding school. That is some of the reason why our people are struggling today. Because a lot of our people grew up in the boarding schools. They learned a lot of toxic behaviors, and they didn’t have their parents around to teach them our traditional ways of how a family should be.  So, they took some of those behaviors of being physically abused and being sexually abused, and they either brought that home and became perpetrators themselves or ended up in relationships where there was abuse because it felt normal for them. My mom, after boarding school, she was able to go to New Mexico, where she went to art school. That was during her high school years. And then when she came back home, she met a young man and she became pregnant at a young age of 18 and she had a son. His name was Sean. She was a young Mother and was struggling to make ends meet. Unfortunately, he only lived to be five years old. He was hit by a car. That was really hard for my Mom. She didn’t really know how to be a Mother, because her biological Mother passed away when she was like, two.  And her stepmother wasn’t really a Mother to her. And then part of her life was in the boarding school, so, she didn’t really know how to be a Mother. She said to me that she didn’t know what real Love was until she had me and my Sister.

A photo taken of a newspaper with 2 photos of Native Women and children, on the lower left is Lucy George, wife of Chief Nespelem George and the photo dates to the 1930s.  The photo above on the right has a caption that reads “Deanna M Clark, an opponent of the mining agreement, with her children MorningStar, 5, left and Earth-Feather, 2, in front of their home.  The words “COLVILLE DEAL” top the newsprint.

Around the time my Mom was grieving over the death of her son, she decided to go back to school. She went to Evergreen, to get her BA in Native American studies. And she learned about the American Indian Movement. So her and her sister decided to go that way. I would say this was maybe 1975. And my Mom, she met Leonard Crowdog. And my Mom wanted to vision quest, because she felt pretty lost. She heard that people were going up in the mountain and getting ready to sundance, and preparing for other ceremonies. So, she decided to go up on the mountain. She decided to go for four days and four nights. Leonard said that usually only the men would go four days and four nights.

Usually the Women only went up for one day and one night. But my Mom, she had a desire to be up there as long as the men. Every day Leonard would see her, or bring her down from the mountain. She’d be in a sweat lodge and he would ask her, “Well, what did you see?” And my Mom said that she seen a lot of Mother Earth’s creatures, the insects, the animals. She seen the deer, she said she seen a male and female cougar. She said she seen eagles, that would always come to visit her. I think it was towards her 3rd or 4th night, there was a thunderstorm.  The thunder beings were coming to visit her. It rained, it thundered. And my Mom said she seen a vision in the clouds. Then, when Leonard came to see her, he was grateful that she was still standing strong. He said a lot of the men, they got chased down that mountain, from a warrior spirit. (Laughter)

My Mom managed to stay up there!  She said she didn’t see the warrior spirit, but she seen the thunder beings. Before that, Leonard said there used to be a heaviness in that area. Cuz that area was closeby to where they had Wounded Knee. So there was a heaviness. A sadness. He said after she was up there like that, and the thunder beings came, Leonard said it was like there was a Lightness.  To everything.  Like, her being up there helped Heal the place.  My Mom said that while she was up there that she prayed to have more children, and she prayed to the morningstar because she felt good every morning when she’d see the morningstar.  That’s why my sister, her name is Morningstar.  She remembers how close she felt to the Mother Earth, and that’s why my name is Earth.  That represents the Mother Earth, and Feather that represents the eagle.  We call Mother Earth our mother because she takes care of us like a Mother would.  She provides the food for us.  Even the animals, they eat the plants she provides, and we eat the animals.  You know?  She has the water through her veins, and we drink the water.  And most of our body is made of water. Even when we’re inside our own mothers, we are surrounded by a water substance.  

And so when we come into this world, it’s the Mother Earth that takes care of us, with our own Mothers. My Mom said she named me after the eagle, and the eagle is significant to our people because they bring our prayers up to the creator. And so that’s why when we have our ceremonies, we use the eagle feathers when we smudge. Cuz even when we Smudge, we Pray. My Mom says the eagle is really significant too because it flies the highest and sees the farthest of all the birds. So, I think that’s really neat.

Shortly after my Mom’s vision quest, she went from jumping into a sweat to going into a peyote ceremony, then going into a sundance.  So she was really spiritually strong around that time.  During her sundance is where she met Russell Means, and I’d say about maybe 12 months later, my sister was born. (laughter). My mom was with him during the AIM (American Indian Movement) trials. There was a lot going on back then. I believe that some things come full circle, sometimes we have to relive things to help us learn something we didn’t learn before. Like with the Sacred Stone camp, everything was beautiful at the beginning. Everybody seemed united. But towards the end, there was a lot of rumors going around, a lot of distrust. And, even, they were saying that the government was trying to come into the camp and look for bodies. That was scary, that reminded me of AIM with Anna Mae, and all of the distrust. So, my Mom, she had to get away from that. Her Baby was more important than dealing with all that. My Mom, she wanted a different life, you know, for her Daughter.

Lisa:  How much older is Morningstar than you?

Earth-Feather:  She’s 2 ½ years older. And so, when Morningstar was a baby, my mom met my father. My father was the youngest man on Tribal Council. They got married, and they had me. Their relationship didn’t last that long. I think it takes a really strong man to be compatible with a really strong Woman. (laughter) My Mom had too much strength for the both of them. (laughter).  But my Mom would tell me stories about Our People. My Great Grandma Christine, she lived to be 104, and she passed away when I was 14. We went to visit her quite a bit. I went from living on my reservation til i was almost four, then we moved to Portland, OR, then we came up to Olympia. So I was able to go to school at WaHeLut (Indian School) when I was an elementary school student. Then we went back to my reservation, even spent some time in Yakama. Then back down to Portland. Then to Spokane. I even travelled down to California and Arizona. And now I’m back up here to Olympia. When we lived in Portland my mom was part of the Big Mountain movement with, I believe it was the Hopi Tribe. They were trying to mine their sacred Mountain. So, my Mom, she would always bring us to meetings about that. When she went to a rally or a march, she usually kept us home, then we would see it on the news. But then when my Mom would go speak with senators, she would bring me along. I was my Mom’s baby.  I shadowed her everywhere. I was able to see her in action. See how she talked with people.  

Lisa:  I’m really liking learning about you, learning about your mom, she sounds amazing! I want to learn more about the Big Mountain resistance, I don’t know anything about that. (Read about the history of Big Mountain/Black Mesa and Peabody Coal here http://www.aics.org/BM/bm.html)

So, thank you!  So, what brought you back to Olympia? Is your mom and sister around?

Earth-Feather:  My sister is around.  My Mom, in about 2010, she developed breast cancer.  She was in remission, and when she was in remission I spent time in Arizona.  Then I came back, and cancer came back, in her blood.  And then in her bones.  So, she passed away in 2015.  We buried her back on our reservation.

Lisa:  Where is the Reservation?

Earth-Feather:  Colville Reservation.  It’s like the middle, Northeastern part of Washington state.  It’s the second biggest Tribe in Washington state.  The largest Tribe is Yakama Nation.  

Lisa:  Thank you for sharing all this with me.  I’m learning so much!  And you are pointing me in directions to learn more about the history of where I live.  So, thank you.

Earth-Feather:  Yeah, Washington state, it has 29 federally recognized Tribes and about 32, so about 3 of them, they are not recognized. They were either never recognized, like the Duwamish, or they lost their federal recognition. WE recognize them, just the government doesn’t want to recognize them. Our Tribe was one of the Tribes who almost lost their federal recognition. The government offered to pay us a lot of money if we would fully assimilate.

But, my Mom, and some of her friends, that I still look up to today, like Yvonne Swan-Wanrow, along with a few other strong Women, they were telling our people, NO - we can’t give up our sovereignty. And around that time too, they were trying to mine. When I was younger they were trying to mine on our land. I think the mount was called Mount Tolman, my mom tried to spearhead that with our Tribe to help educate others. The funniest thing is, my dad, he was on Tribal Council, and he was FOR mining. And my mom was against it. She campaigned against him. (laughter)

Lisa:  Wow. Your mom’s awesome.

Earth-Feather:  That shows how much she was AGAINST mining and FOR our People.  Now that I think back and I look at it, I mean… How can he be for mining when his own Daughter was named after the Mother Earth? Right? (laughter) I think that’s comical. (laughter)

Lisa:  And so, when did you start doing organizing?

Earth-Feather:  Well. Before my Mom passed away, she had a vision of all these programs that she wanted to start. She was on her way of beginning all these programs, that would help Heal the Women and Children. So, when she passed away, I wanted to continue my education, and pick up where she left off. And get her programs started. So, I started going back to school.  

Since I was 5 years old, I’ve wanted to be an attorney. I’m a libra and I remember my Mom told me libras make good attorneys, she sat down and explained to me what they do, and I was like, “Oh. Well I want to be an attorney!” Then I remember being 16 and sitting down with Russell Means, and he was asking me and my sister, “So what do you guys want to do with your lives?” And I told him, “well, ever since I was little I’ve wanted to be an attorney.” He was like, “an attorney?!? Oh. Well. If you were an attorney I would never hire you.” And I was like, “Oh. And why is that?” He’s like, “Attorneys are almost like the military. You go against your People.” I told him I’m not trying to go against my People. I’m trying to advocate for my People. I’m trying to HELP my People. And then, come to find out, that his Daughter who is about my age, she’s an attorney.  (laughter)  I think she heads the Lakota Law Project. So I’m hoping I had some influence there. (laughter).  

But my Mom, she moved over this way because she wanted to get her masters in Tribal governance.  Because she wanted to start all these programs.  But then she got sick and she wasn’t able to complete the program.  And so, now I’m attending college.  I’m trying to get that Tribal governance degree, and then onto law school.

Lisa:  Nice! And, you are a Mom.

Earth-Feather:  Yes.  I’m a Mom of four children.  My oldest, his name is Aztec, and he’s 17.  People say the word “Aztec” means “of the People,” or “for the People.”  I have a son, Sky, he’s 15.  His real name is Sky-Lu.  Sky-Lu (Sk’ae_L’oo) in the Okanogan language, that means “for the People.”  And my daughter Katiri, she’s 9, and she’s named after Saint Kateri, she was a(n Indigenous) healer, in the Catholic faith.  She really helped the People.  I spell my daughter’s name a little bit differently than the Saint Kateri.  Because my daughter, she’s her own saint.  

And then my youngest daughter, her name is Rainbow. And my Great Grandma, part of her medicine was the rainbow; that’s like all nature’s powers together.  So that’s my way of naming my daughter after her Great, Great Grandma.  Also, when I think of the rainbow, I’ve always heard prophecies.  And I believe that our prophecies are true, that one day, our People of four colors and of all Nations could come together and Heal.

Lisa:  That’s hopeful, I love it.

Earth-Feather: I have one child for every season. Aztec, he was born in the summer.  Sky was born in the fall. Kateri was born in the spring and then, my Rainbow was born in the winter.  

Some people too, they wonder about my last name. Because my last name is not my father’s name, and I’m not married. Recently, I became divorced, August of last year. I’ve learned that I can change my last name, on my documents, on the court documents. And so, I made up my own last name. Sovereign. I wrote an article about it, and Last Real Indians, they published it.  (Please read that article at http://lastrealindians.com/whats-in-a-last-name-by-earth-feather-sovereign/)   

Back during the Idle No More movement, my Mom was still here, we were still talking about the programs that we wanted to start. We thought that we should start one of the programs of getting our Indigenous Women together. And from there we would be able to help bring awareness of all the things that are going on with our people. It came to mind to start a group called the Indigenous Women’s Warrior Society. I started this group because, being Women, I believe that we are at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak. But by being at the bottom, we are able to uplift others. And because our Women, statistically 2 out of 3 Indigenous Women are victims of sexual assault. That could be my mother, my sister, my daughter. And those are only the reported cases. Our Women who know they were sexually assaulted. I was sexually active at a young age. People would consider that maybe I was promiscuous, when in reality, I was being raped. Cuz I was underage. Also one out of three Native American Women experiences domestic violence. And again, those are only the Women who realize they are being abused.  I didn’t know I was being abused, because I didn’t get the crap knocked outta me. But I was being abused. There is abuse that happens physically, emotionally, mentally. Even spiritually and financially.  

And our Women are becoming, you know, MISSING. In Canada there are over a thousand missing and murdered Indigenous Women, cases that are unsolved. And in the United States, there’s no number. There’s no number yet. I believe the University of Washington is trying to gather statistics on that. Also, statistically, our People are being murdered by the police more than any other race. We just don’t hear about it as much. I believe all this is active continued genocide. Because, if there’s no more Indigenous Women, then there’s no way to continue our lineage. If there is no lineage then the government could get rid of our Tribes and kick us off our reservations. All of this is related. Some of our Women are missing because some of them are growing up in foster care. When those girls turn 18, they don’t really have nowhere to go. So a part of their survival is, that they go and sell their bodies. Or, somebody steals them and sells their bodies to some of these man camps, these oil men camps. So I believe, if you were to follow the trail of all these men camps, that you might be able to find some of our Women.  That’s why I believe our Women are at the bottom of the totem pole, and I believe that once the healing comes to our Indigenous Women, that when we start to heal from the bottom… Then the healing will work it’s way up. It’s like, when We rise, all People rise.

So I started reaching out to Women for the Indigenous Women’s Warrior Society. We have Women from North America, South America. We have Women from Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and - I forgot the European Tribe… But yeah! (laughter) Women from all over.  It’s not only Women who have their own grassroots, it’s Women who are trying to get back to their Indigenous roots. Women who are trying to bring Healing to other People and to their families. One of my first actions was a flash mob Round Dance at the (Olympia) mall and a march downtown. I collaborated with Idle No More Olympia.  It’s not only an issue at Standing Rock, of No DAPL or the XL pipeline… We have our own issues here in Washington state. We have coal trains coming through, coal going out in the ships, toward China, polluting our oceans. They want to start fracking in our oceans and on our land. They not only want to run oil pipelines but gas pipelines, through and by our Tribes. If you look up that map (of WA), we have A LOT of little reservations everywhere. And it doesn’t only affect the Indigenous people here in Washington state, it’ll affect all of Us. Because, living in the Northwest, you know, we cherish our Water. The environment we have here is different than in a lot of areas. We have beautiful greenery of trees and plants, our wild animals that everybody here loves, doing outdoor activities... It will affect everything around here, and our territory is so beautiful.

So, that brings me to another event that is happening, Saturday March 11th(2017), because there is a global call to action on March 10th.  I’m collaborating with some of the people from the Seattle No DAPL, including Matt Remle (Lakota), Millie Kennedy (Tsimshian) and Rachel Heaton (Muckleshoot), and they requested that we do a march here in Olympia.  Their event is on the 10th, and the Olympia event is on the 11th.

As I was putting the event together, I didn’t want it to just stand for Olympia. I think I made that mistake the last time I was doing my march. Because it kind of does disappoint me that everybody likes to gather in Seattle, and I see why, the community is very large. Not many people have transportation to come down here to Olympia. I feel like Olympia represents the whole state of Washington. This is where our government leaders are, this is where they make and change laws. And we can’t only be out there, yelling around, saying “we don’t agree with this.” Or just stand there saying “I’m here to protect Mother Earth.” We need to follow up by changing the laws. And making people be held accountable for their disregard of Indigenous environmental rights.  And thinking they could just throw a few thousand dollars down after they destroy our sacred sites.  You know, they need to be held accountable, and that can’t happen anymore.  And it’s really sad that president trump could just sign an executive order and try to abolish the EPA, with just the swipe of a pen.  Putting pipelines, approving the DAPL, the keystone pipeline again…  So like I said, there’s all these other companies, that are trying to come in here to Washington state.  So we need to stand up to the government.  Because what happened over in North Dakota could just as easily happen here.  So I am gathering Tribal leaders from the different Tribes, because Arvol Looking Horse said that the 7th fires were lit.  Now it’s time for us to bring that flame and reignite it in our own home territories.  We need to bring awareness. So at my event, I’m hoping that these Tribal Leaders will let us know what’s going on in their home territories.  And let us know how We could Help. And I really hope the event turns out well. We’ll also have my friend Star Nayea, she will be performing two of her new songs she just wrote about Standing Rock.  

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Description: It is raining, and after the water blessing, prayers and songs at Heritage Park, grassroots and Indigenous community members lead a march toward the legislative building.  It is raining, and a de-escalation safety team (in orange vests) support the taking of the streets.

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Description: The rain has stopped and the march continues through downtown Olympia, past banks and businesses, on their way to the state capitol’s legislative building.

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Description: The sun breaks from the clouds as The People marching arrive at the capitol.

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Description: Activator, Earth-Feather Sovereign, shares at the microphone to the many people gathered on the steps of the legislative building. She is joined by her daughters Rainbow and Katiri.

Description:

Marles Black Bird and Morningstar Means are marching on the wet streets of downtown Olympia, right in front of the “Bank of America,” holding the light blue Tribal flag of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.  Marles holds a blow horn and Earth-Feather is behind her and many other marchers. Please watch this video statement of Marles Black Bird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lGrrnADBPM

Description:

The march continues past the “Bank of America,” front and center are Nisqually Canoe Youth, smiling and drumming behind them are Matt Remle of Last Real Indians and other Indigenous Water Protectors and community members.  There is a tall person wearing a hat with their fist in the air.  Signs in the background read “Water is Life” and DIVEST.  Please read http://lastrealindians.com/divest-now-joint-statement-regarding-the-next-stage-in-the-fight-against-dakota-access-pipeline-by-gyasi-ross-matt-remle/ and http://lastrealindians.com/guide-to-divestment-by-rachel-heaton/ by Rachel Heaton to learn about the Divestment Movement and the success in Seattle.  

Description:

As the march arrives to the Washington state capitol grounds, Indigenous Elders Shelly Boyd (Colville Confederate Tribes) and Larry Kenoras (Okanogan BC) greet the crowd.  Larry Kenoras wears long braids, holds a blue hat in his hand with his right fist raised powerfully.  The sun is shining on their faces.  Read more and about Shelly Boyd’s life’s work dedicated to the revitalisation of Salish languages and support the The Inchelium Language House here http://www.incheliumlanguagehouse.com/our-home

Description:

People circle the state capitol grounds, making their way to the front of the legislative building, at the center of their walk is a huge Teepee that has been raised on the grass prominently next to the US flag and the state of Washington flag.  There is a blue construction crane in the background.  There are at least 150 people that have marched.  

Description:

The People make their way onto the steps of the legislative building, with Indigenous community members at the top of the steps, and many People on each side.  This is a huge building, with massive Roman style columns.  At the top of the stairs are outstretched arms in gratitude and prayer, including those of Earth-Feather Sovereign, who is wearing a black sweater with blue on the front.  There are many raised fists and hands.  To the left is a huge red Salmon that was created and carried during the entire march, it is several feet long. Learn more about the history of the Broken Medicine Creek Treaty and the Struggle to fish salmon by watching the movie As Long as the Rivers Run by Carol Burns 1971 here https://archive.org/details/AsLongAsTheRiversRun

Description:

Indigenous Elder, Elaine Sutterlict-McCloud (Chehalis) is wearing a clear rain jacket and a maroon sash that says “WATER PROTECTOR” on it, she’s holding a microphone.  She is wearing sunglasses and addressing the crowd.  Read Honoring Our Elders:  Elaine Sutterlict McCloud in the Chehalis Tribal Newspaper here https://www.chehalistribe.org/newsletter/pdf/2009-12.pdf  

Description:

Puyallup Tribal Elder, and long time activist for Indian fishing rights, Ramona Bennett is standing with James Rideout and Jesse Nightwalker, and she has just passed the microphone to Water Protector, Roxy Murray, who says, “there are seagulls falling from the sky in the port of Tacoma…”  Learn more about Ramona Bennett at http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/bennett.htm

Description:

The sun is going down, and ten members of the Quinalt Indian Nation are standing before the crowd, Five youth and five adults. Two Spirit and Quinalt Nation Vice President, Tyson Elliot, stands to the far right, with their right hand to their chest, and left hand holding the microphone.  Please read “Shared Waters, Shared Values” Quinault Nation Battles Proposed Oil Facilities in Last Real Indians at  http://lastrealindians.com/shared-waters-shared-values-quinault-nation-battles-proposed-oil-facilities/  

Description:

With dusk, the event is coming to a close, the crowd is dispersing, and clean up is happening.  The Teepee rests in front of the huge legislative building, with its Western/Roman pillars of corinthean order, and huge domed top.  The Teepee, especially at this place, like the event that just happened, is a symbol of Indigenous Resistance, Decolonization, Love.  It is Work is Action, this is Hope.

Lisa Ganser is a white Disabled genderqueer artist and activist living in Olympia, WA on stolen and colonized Squaxin, Nisqually, Chehalis, First Nations land.  They are a copwatcher, a sidewalk chalker and a dog walker, and the daughter of a momma named Sam.

Youth Poverty Scholars Investigative Team #100 - Sahara, Seven, Zosia & Sasha Findings

In Deecolonize Academy/POOR Magazine summer camp, we researched food from a local liquor store in our black and brown community. We broke into two investigative youth groups and we looked at, the healthy and unhealthy benefits in the food.

The food that my group researched was Tampico, Lunchables, Onions, and Black beans. Tampico and Lunchables were the unhealthy food group and the onion and beans were the healthy food group. By far the most unhealthy of the unhealthy food group was the Tampico, researched by youth poverty Scholars.

We found that Tampico contains  Potassium Citrate: A potassium salt of citric acid with the molecular formula K₃C₆H₅O₇. It is a white, hygroscopic crystalline powder. It is odorless with a saline taste. It contains 38.28% potassium by mass.

Antimony: Is a toxic and poisonous metal that can cause irritation of the eyes, skin, and lungs. In a longer time, it causes lung diseases, heart problems, diarrhea, severe vomiting and stomach ulcers. The list goes on and honestly, there is more high fructose corn syrup in it than actual juice.

Lunchables are high in sodium. We know from personal experience seeing kids all around me eating Lunchables every day. The American Heart Association recommends that the average kid mg 1500 mg of sodium a day, but many kids who eat Lunchables in jest 260000 mg in one sitting. We didn't know this until we researched it, but once sodium enters your bloodstream. it draws water from outside of your blood vessels into it which gives you higher blood pressure. that is not healthy especially for little kids.

We also found that Parade’s dry black beans are about $1.50 for 16oz, they contain total carbs 31 dietary fiber 8g protein 11g. Black beans are prized for their high protein and fiber content. Black beans may help strengthen bones and Black beans contain quercetin and saponins which can protect the heart.

Team #101 (Tibu, Kimo, Amir and Ziair) Findings

Food Worse than Calibers

We are reporting for 96.1 KEXU Youth Poverty Skolaz Radio and we are going to present a list of healthy and unhealthy foods. We found all of these foods at the grocery store across the street. That grocery store contains mostly unhealthy foods and our job was to find healthy and unhealthy foods in that store and compare them to each other. Here is our list of foods.

Healthy Foods

Berkeley Farms Whole Milk

Krinkle Cut Kettle potato chips

Unhealthy Foods

Oatmeal Cream Pie

Bone-In Chicken Wings

Mrs. Freshley's Chocolate Mini-Donuts

Food is an important thing in our society but most of the time it is poisoning us as we eat. Especially in the poorest neighborhoods we are surrounded by liquor stores and grocery stores filled with nothing but unhealthy foods

The daily intake of sodium that an average person should have a day is 2.3 grams. If you don’t want to get high cholesterol which means having to control your blood pressure constantly you have to intake less than 200 grams a day.

The thing is these chicken wings have 720 milligrams of sodium. Now imagine having about three of these chicken wing meals a day. This is something that many of us struggle with. We live off of food stamps and WIC.

We can’t afford to go to whole foods and get a pre-cooked chicken for $14.99 We have to get these microwaveable chicken wings for 3.00 at the nearest grocery. After eating these meals and meals even worse every day nonstop our body has no break from the abuse that it’s being put under and your blood gets really hot and your blood pressure starts to rise. If you don’t catch it in time you eventually die.

This is the reality that most of us live with except it’s even worse because they don’t know. Almost everyone in these neighborhoods living under these conditions has no idea that they are killing themselves. But see, that is the plan.

The government takes their former enemy’s so powerful once, and put them in these confined neighborhoods and give them only this to eat and only give them this amount of money to spend it and when they can’t they become houseless. This is what is also happening in the Indian Reservations.

Food is important it is one of the things that make us human and the say what you eat is what you are if you’re living a diet full processed food, sugar in almost everything you eat I'm sorry to say this you're on the road to diabetes, Heart Problems, Cancer unfortunately if you’re a resident of an area of poverty you might not be able to access the better foods that markets like rainbow or Trader Joe’s  provide natural and healthy food’s.

 In 2006, a comprehensive review of a large number of TFA related studies indicated a strong association between consumption of TFA and CHD, concluding “On a per-calorie basis, trans fats appear to increase the risk of CHD more than any other micronutrient.11 A more conclusive evidence came from the Nurses’ Health Study in which CHD risk roughly doubled for each 2% increase in trans fat calories consumed instead of carbohydrate calories.

Today in this pandemic of obesity, Diabetes, and cancer. All these are connected, to what you might ask. Let me explain that the food you eat today is garbage filled Genetic Modified organisms, Preservations, Chemicals and a whole lot of stuff you can't even Pronounce.

But why is the question I would ask the corporations why would we pay for GMO foods if they’re just gonna damage us? It's to control the population and milking us out of our money and getting conscious to get used to putting garbage in our body.

But, I have found some alternatives that are less toxic. Knowing how to cook is essential to making your own food one recipe is beans tortillas cheese are good for a little pick me up it's also cheap. Gardening also a really good way to know what you're eating while maintaining your own and it's so much healthier because it doesn't have any chemicals preservatives.