The CIA brings people together, like Leo Ryan, Patty Hearst, Cinque & Jim Jones

Is there any totally fucked up thing that's happened in the last 50 years that HASN'T involved the CIA?

Did you know that Cinque, the head of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was experimented on in prison by the CIA mind control program? He was kept in solitary confinement, harrassed, tortured and fed several hallucinogens, to see if he and other inmates could be turned into "Robots" ala, "The Manchurian Candidate".

It's interesting how there is a connection between the CIA, Cinque, Ryan, Patty Hearst and Jim Jones.

First, the CIA ran well documented, illegal mind control experiments on prisoners, exposing them to hallucinogens, while isolating them and harrasing them with the goal of them becoming pliant and docile and thus, more readily available to do what they are told.

Cinque was exposed to this treatment, and, as legend has it, this experience gave him the idea to take a rich person hostage, expose them to the same process and extract a ton of money from their wealthy parents, while also brain washing them to do their bidding... fascinating! Cinque died in a shoot out, but if he were alive moments after they'd snatched Patty Hearts off of the streets, I'm sure he would have cabled a thank you note to the CIA. Certainly his idea had all the ring and tell tale signs of a psychotic drug fueled delusion and self-enrichment eppiffany.

Ironically, Congressman Ryan is the one who petitioned the government to commute Patty Hearst's sentence for time served shortly after she was convicted of bank robbery.

it was Patty's misfortune to be caught up with a 70's era revolutionary group that had a black man as a leader. Had she, for instance been a member of the Weather Underground, there's no doubt, she would have walked. But after having contributed to the chaotic free grocery give aways in Oakland and the Bayview, she had essentially done the unforgiveable by rubbing Uncle Sam's nose in his own excrement.

Leo Ryan was one of those White Boys that really knew how to enjoy the limits of White Priviledge. He also had a flair for the dramatic and seemingly felt invioable as he went about his business uprooting corruption and injustice. he went undercover as an inmate at Folsom Prison for a week (ala Robert Redford's 'Brubaker) and also exposed the U.S.'s secret war in Angola.. a disclosure that caused repercussions that are still felt today (by those that remember the disclosure and are able to make the parallell between the secret war in Angola and the current illegal, unjustified and deceitful occupation of Afganistan and Iraq).

Some say that Congressman Ryan got too big for his britches. Certainly passing a law that required the CIA to notify 12 Congressional committees every time they got ready to do a undercover operation certainly didn't endear him to the power structure that had worked so hard to not only secure, but protect the freedoms of Whites, at the same time they faithfully fulfilled their double-task of denying those same freedoms to Blacks. Yes, Ryan's interest in "justice" was simply bad etiquette. Apparently he didn't know that when you hand the running of the plantation to the overseer, it was bad form to observe and grade their human rights adherence.

And so, it seems that when Ryan made his ill-fated trip to Jonestown, it was potentially too great of an opportunity for the CIA to resist, to not make sure that while the 909 mostly Black folks drank the kool aid, Ryan's body was riddled with 12 bullets... (the same number pumped into an un-armed Bobby Hutton by a contingent of 50 Oakland Police officers... but that's another story).

It seems that the CIA had compiled nearly 40,000 documents on the people's temple that were only released in 1997 following the Scientology's Freedom Magazine. CIA agents Philip Dwyer and George Philip Blakely were at Jonestown at the time of the slaughter passed off as suicide. Massive quantities of mind altering drugs were found after the slaughter (sound familiar) and even folks who were involved in Jones' inner circle were amazed at how many guns magically appeared once the punch bowl was brought out. In fact, many of those who are counted among the Guiness Book of World Record mass suicide record, were actually shot in the back by either bullets of syringes of cyanice... in the last 1,000 years of existence, from Middle Easter Arquebusiers up until November 18, 1978, the the number of suicides by self-inflicted gunshot to the middle of ones own back stood at zero.. Miraculously, a few dozen folks at Jonestown, listed as suicides had accomplished this feat, within miniutes of each other, while the kool aid was still cold.

It may be a coincidence that two of the 8 survivors on site at Jonestown, were CIA operatives... one has to wonder if perhaps one of them was on the flatbed truck that gunned down Ryan and pumped a bullet into 103lb. future California State Representative Jackie Spier as she lay prone on the runway playing dead.

Despite the fact that the Scientologist are the main ones putting this story out, the evidence was sufficiently convincing for the 5 grown children of Ryan to file a multi-million dollar wrongful death suit against the U.S. Government for complicity in their fathers death.

Enjoy! I've included some juicy excerpts from the article below:

On Cinque, Ryan, Mind Control and Ryan's penchant for spilling government secrets:

In 1977 and 1978, Ryan pressured the agency to reveal the extent of its involvement in psychiatric “mind-control” experiments. Among the tests he pushed to expose were those performed in the early 1970s on inmates at a state hospital in Vacaville, California, which may have included among their subjects Donald DeFreeze, known as “Cinque,” a central figure in the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia Hearst.

In October 1978, a month before Jonestown, investigative reporter Jack Anderson published a syndicated column entitled “CIA May Have Inspired Cinque,” based on information that most likely had been leaked by Ryan or someone in his committee. The column detailed statements from one Clifford Jefferson, who claimed to have known DeFreeze while they were incarcerated together and to have participated in psychiatric experiments with various drugs, including mescaline, Quaalude and Artane. According to Jefferson, “DeFreeze stated that he had gone through the same tests and also knew of stress tests that were given to prisoners in which they were kept in solitary, harassed and annoyed until they would do anything asked of them to get out; then they were given these drugs and would become like robots.

“He [DeFreeze] said that when he got out, he would get a revolutionary group to kidnap some rich person. They would hold that person tied up in a dark place, keep him frightened and in fear of his life, then give him mescaline and other drugs, and the person would become a robot and do anything he was asked to do—including killing others. Although DeFreeze died in a 1974 shootout with Los Angeles police, CIA documents have since confirmed the agency did perform drug tests on inmates at Vacaville under its MK-Ultra program.

On the CIA and FBI's surveillance of the People's Temple, and infiltration by agents, as well as the U.S. Governements seemingly foreknowledge of an imminent Jonestown Suicide (It would be hard for the government to not know about the imminent mass "suicide" seeing as Jones had made a habit for the previous year and a half to continually discuss suicide, and to even stage multiple practices, complete with kool-aid):

Read On:
In March 1997, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it would release for the first time nearly 39,000 additional pages of documents concerning Jonestown, the Peoples Temple and related matters under the Freedom of Information Act. As these documents become available and are examined, new revelations concerning the mass deaths at Jonestown in 1978 and the killing of Congressman Ryan continue to mount. The documents include 8,603 pages from the FBI’s investigative file and an additional 30,229 pages. The bureau made the papers available based on a 1993 FOIA request filed by Freedom.

And they show that while the church underwent a long period of harassment, surveillance and infiltration at the hands of government intelligence agents, these intensified once the group, founded in Indiana, relocated to San Francisco, and particularly after its headquarters moved to Guyana.

Indeed, in 1977 and 1978 came anonymous threats against the Peoples Temple, accompanied by random acts of violence against group members. It was in late 1977 that heavy pressure began on Ryan to visit Jonestown—pressure which built to a crescendo shortly before he agreed to go. Those pushing him to take action against “cults” included psychologist Margaret Singer, while others, among them Tim Stoen, a former member and top aide to Jim Jones with alleged ties to the CIA, pressured Ryan to visit Jonestown.

U.S. Air Force Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty, who worked closely in key positions with the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for many years, told Freedom that Leo Ryan had moved in too close to certain skeletons that could never be safely disturbed. A relentless and uncompromising investigator, nothing could stop Ryan—short of violence. But how could such a high-profile personality be eliminated without bringing down upon the perpetrators an investigation to end all investigations?

A very real possibility is that by making the assassination part of an even larger catastrophe, the central drama itself—that of a courageous individual blocked from probing reports of illegal, unconstitutional, government-sponsored psychiatric “mind-control” activities—was obscured.

Colonel Prouty noted evidence of the involvement of a larger force in the operation: “The Joint Chiefs of Staff had prepared air shipments of hundreds of body bags. They didn’t normally keep that many in any one place. Within hours, they began to shuttle them down to Georgetown, the main city. They couldn’t possibly have done that without prior knowledge that it was going to happen. It shows that there was prior planning.”

At Jonestown, he said, the JCS provided the body bags, the airlift and all the rest on a timetable that shows advance knowledge. “The JCS wouldn’t have moved at all on their own,” he said. “They didn’t give a damn about Jonestown.” These and other unusual events, he noted, “are the kinds of earmarks that define the hand of American intelligence.”

On the Ryan family's lawsuit against the government and possible government complicity in providing mind-altering drugs to Jim Jones:

More than 20 months after Leo Ryan was killed, his five adult children—two sons and three daughters—filed a lawsuit based on extensive investigation into what had precipitated their father’s death. Filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on July 31, 1980, the suit asked for general damages of $3 million, plus costs for Congressman Ryan’s funeral and bringing the action. The lawsuit charged that “the Jonestown Colony was infiltrated with agent(s) of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. “[That] the name of one said agent was (George) Phillip Blakey, a trusted aide of Peoples Temple leader James Warren Jones.

“[T]hat said agents were working with the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency to use the Jonestown Colony as part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s MK Ultra program. “[T]hat massive quantities of mind-control drugs were found at the Jonestown colony after the fatal incident of November 18, 1978.” Phillip Blakey had traveled to Guyana to select the site for Jonestown and to begin clearing land. He was one of the few survivors of the mass killing.

The lawsuit furthermore charged that Richard Dwyer doubled as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency and that Dwyer “arranged for the transportation of decedent [Ryan] and his party once in Guyana; briefed decedent and his party on the events and conditions at Jonestown upon their arrival; and escorted decedent and his party to Jonestown in November 1978.”

It alleged that Dwyer “as an agent and employee of the Central Intelligence Agency ... negligently, maliciously and intentionally withheld crucial information about the Jonestown Colony which would have prevented harm to decedent.” It further charged that Dwyer “knowingly, intentionally and maliciously led [Ryan] into a trap at the Port Kaituma Air Strip, which cost decedent his life.” The Ryans’ lawsuit was dismissed for reasons that have to date never been fully disclosed.

Very interesting. It's interesting how the over-involvement of the CIA in virtually every massacre or tragedy, seems to only help support them when they say make their argument that every conspiracy theorist tries to tie them to everything... Of course, the other explanation is that they are actually involved.

One last thing, seeing as the folks who died were forced to drink the koolaid by armed guards, or shot in their backs as they attempted to escape, or injected with cyanide in their backs, why do they refer to it as a mass suicide? Probably because if it's seen as a slaughter, then folks have to dig deeper. Any investigator knows that if the cause of death is determined to be a suicide, then it's a much easier case to close.

Huey P. Newton on Revolutionary Suicide

I Am We, Or Revolutionary Suicide

By Huey P. Newton

"the spirit of the generations . . . touched God's heart"

There is an old African saying, "I am we." If you met an African in ancient times and asked him who he was, he would reply, "I am we. This is revolutionary suicide: I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude.

So many of my comrades are gone now. Some tight partners, crime partners, and brothers off the block are begging on the street. Others are in asylum, penitentiary, or grave. They are all suicides of one kind of another who had the sensitivity and tragic imagination to see the oppression. Some overcame; they are the revolutionary suicides. Others were reactionary suicides who either overestimated or underestimated the enemy, but in any case were powerless to change their conception of the oppressor.

The differences lies in hope and desire. By hoping and desiring, the revolutionary suicide chooses life; he is, in the words of Nietzsche, "an arrow of longing for another shore." Both suicides despise tyranny, but the revolutionary is both a great despiser and a great adorer who longs for another shore.

The reactionary suicide must learn, as his brother the revolutionary has learned, that the desert is not a circle. It is a spiral. When we have passed through the desert, nothing will be the same.

You cannot bare your throat to the murderer. As George Jackson said, you must defend yourself and take the dragon position as in karate and make the front kick and the back kick when you are surrounded. You do not beg because your enemy comes with the butcher knife and the hatchet in the other. "He will not become a Buddhist over night."

The Preacher said that the wise man and the fool have the same end: they go to the grave as a dog. Who sends us to the grave? The unknowable, the force that dictates to all classes, all territories, all ideologies; he is death, the Big Boss. An ambitious man seeks to dethrone the Big Boss, to free himself, to control when and how he will go to the grave.

There is another illuminating story of the wise man and the fool, found in Mao's Little Red Book. A foolish old man went to the North Mountain and began to dig; a wise old man passed by and said, "Why do you dig; foolish old man? Do you not know that you cannot move the mountain with a little shovel?" But the foolish old man answered resolutely, "While the mountain cannot get any higher, it will get lower with each shovelful. When I pass on, my sons and his sons and his son's sons will go on making the mountain lower. Why can't we move the mountain?"

And the foolish old man kept digging, and the generations that followed after him, and the wise old man looked on in disgust. But the resoluteness and the spirit of the generations that followed the foolish old man touched God's heart, and God sent two angels who put the mountain on their backs and moved the mountain.

This is the story Mao told. When he spoke of God he meant the six hundred million who had helped him to move imperialism and bourgeois thinking, the two great mountains.

The reactionary suicide is "wise," and the revolutionary suicide is a "fool," a fool for the revolution in the way Paul meant when he spoke of being "a fool for Christ." That foolishness can move the mountains of oppression; it is our great leap and our commitment to the dead and the unborn.

We will touch God's heart; we will touch the people's heart, and together we will move the mountain.

READ THIS NOW!! The Lil' Bobby Hutton Memorial

The Bobby Hutton memorial that will soon sit in Lil' Bobby Hutton Park (aka De Fremery Park) will serve as one of the few enduring symbols in the United States honoring the Black Panthers. Currently, there are no streets named after Panthers, no statues and no publicly funded institutions. Although Bobby Hutton was the third Black Panther member he is an excellent choice to serve as the first Panther to be immortalized in a statue.

A week before Lil' Bobby's 18th birthday and three days after The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Bobby Hutton was shot 12 times and killed by a contingent of over 40 Oakland Police officers while standing, shirtless, in flood lights, with his hands in the air in the act of surrendering.

Lil' Bobby started in the movement as little more than a child and in a few short years, he evolved into a well-read, politically aware Revolutionary. Lil' Bobby's evolution was repeated thousands of times over, across the nation in the 43 Black Panther chapters that sprang up in response to Huey P. Newton's call for a generation of fearless Black men to step forward and take their place in the front lines of the struggle.

Huey P. Newton stated that the true revolutionary engages in "Revolutionary Suicide" which is the sacrifice of ones life and efforts, for the revolution, but not ones life.
Huey also said, "Revolution is a process, not an event", meaning the revolutionary must fight for freedom while creating a new society that can embody the means necessary to sustain a perpetual post-revolutionary society. Huey's vision was of a new consciousness for Black American that would transform future generations to safeguard the hard fought freedoms of the revolution.

The Lil' Bobby Hutton statue will stand for everything The Panther's achieved, the dangers they faced, and the sacrifices they made in the enduring struggle of Black Americans to rid themselves of neglect, discrimination, and crushing disparity. The Statue will also serve as a reminder that the Black community needs more Bobby's, more Huey's, Malcolm's and Martin's from the next generation, so that they can serve as the leaders of the future and finish the work that to this day, remains undone.

For those who would like to become literate in order to open up a world of opportunities, the Bobby Hutton Adult Literacy Program (insert date, address, time, phone number). For those of you who would like to become a part of the Bobby Hutton Memorial, then attend the (insert date of event, fee, address, phone, web address, etc), and your contribution will be used to make the memorial a reality.

My People: The Creek, Cree, Blackfoot, Mohawk & Cherokee Nations

In addition to African and Cuban Ancestry, I have five known tribes running in my veins. Blackfoot Cherokee Mohawk Creek Cree.

Blackfoot:
The Blackfoot Confederacy consists of four different tribes, the Pikuni/Peigan, North Peigan Pikuni, Blood/Kainai, and Blackfoot/Siksika. Members of the Blackfoot Confederation presently live in Montana, the United States and Alberta, Canada.
The Blackfoot migrated to their present territory from the northern Great Lakes Region. They were nomadic buffalo hunters. The Blackfoot were first introduced to horses in 1730 when the Shoshoni attacked them on horseback. After this, they obtained their own horses through trade with the Flathead, Kutenai and Nez Perce. They also traded buffalo hides, horses, and guns with settlers as far away as the east coast. However, by the winter of 1884, the buffalo were nearly extinct and many Blackfoot starved. They were forced to depend upon the Indian Agency for food. Cohesive structure was the very reason that the Niitsitapi achieved cultural, political and military predominance making them "the Lords of the Great Plains." They were a Nation of people united by a common language, culture and religion living in a country with borders recognized by other First Nations. In 1870, one of the worse slaughters of Indians by American troops occured, known as the Marias Massacre. On the morning of Jan. 23, 200 Peigans were killed, most of them women, children, and elderly. The Peigans were a friendly tribe, not the hostile camp that the troops were supposed to attack. However, the commander had permission to use his judgment and attack the Peigans and punish them for things they may be guilty of in the past or future.
The Blackfoot were a nomadic people who followed the buffalo. Their territory once covered an areas from Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta to the Yellowstone River, and from the Rocky Mountains to the present day North Dakota border. The most important event of the year was the Sundance Festival, or the Medicine Lodge Ceremony, which was celebrated with other Plains Indians tribes. An important religious area for the Blackfoot is the Badger-two Medicine area. This area was lost in 1895 to the U.S. government in a treaty which was poorly translated to the Blackfoot.

Cherokee:
At the base of the Great Smoky Mountains live a people whose ancestors came to America thousands of years before Columbus. Ancient tribes followed large animals over a land bridge from Asia when the seas had frozen into glaciers during the last Ice-age, making the oceans shallow. Tribes hunted the large animals with stone tipped spears, then roasted their meat over fires in coastal caves and rustic abodes. Hides were used for clothing, shoes and blankets. Clans moved down the shorelines with the animals and gathered wild fruits and vegetables along the way. Fire was carried from place to place. Fish were caught and sea shells were used for knives, tools and utensils. Colorful feathers, gems and shells were strung with animal hide and worn for identity. When our climate got warmer the glaciers melted, the oceans rose, smaller animals prevailed and people moved inland with the oceans. Tropical currents flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, causing rains which kept the Mississippi River full year round. Fish and migratory animals ate the foods which grew near the river's bottom lands and thousands of people settled the Mississippi River. They fanned up its feeders as the climate got warmer. Various clans gathered to form villages to protect themselves from others and wild animals. Some in the villages fished, others hunted, some made blankets and clothes from plants and animals, and others gathered wild fruits and vegetables. Pottery was made from clay and seeds were planted in fertile places along the rivers. Houses were made with wood and covered to keep them dry. Fire places were built and used to smoke fish and meat for the winter. Crops were gathered and stored in dry places.
Villages united into networks bordered by natural barriers. Dugout canoes were invented and networks enlarged into nations of people who shared certain customs and gestures. Culture grew rapidly with the exchange of news, foods, clothing, metals, and art. The Cherokee Indians, the Tennessee River people, became one of the nations residing along the Great River System; the Mississippi and all of its giant tributaries. Other nations were forming along the Great River's other tributaries: the Ohio, the Missouri, the Arkansas and the Red Rivers. Trade was conducted along the Great River from the Rockies to the Appalachians and down to the Gulf of Mexico.
Large cities grew where the big tributaries merged. Indian economy focused into the continent, with Illinois at the center of trade, not outward across the seas, as was the habit of European nations at the time Columbus discovered America. The Cherokee Indians lived along the Tennessee River in the Appalachian Mountains. They thrived in the bottom lands from Virginia southward. They built their houses in villages, much like Early American settlers did. Villages were separated by day-long walks, houses were made of wood and stone, fields were planted, nuts and berries were gathered, game was cured, tobacco was smoked and the Cherokee people adhered to high ethical standards. "Fire," the center of life, became the Cherokee word for "home." Rivers between the Cherokee mountains, fed by creeks running from all directions, flowed north and west into the Great River, the Cherokees' lifeline to other Indian cultures. A network of roads followed those rivers and streams to connect the Cherokee villages. Steep mountain gaps limited routing choices so Cherokee roads converged at certain gaps, just as roads do today in those mountains. Village chieftains lead and represented the people to the tribe as a whole. The people used the roads to trade and compete with other villages. They continued to grow and flourish well after Columbus discovered America, but when Hernando de Soto followed their roads into their villages in 1540 everything changed. The Spaniards brought foreign diseases, horses, chains, knives, guns and vicious dogs to America; they took women, food and slaves as they went. North America withstood the onslaught to become the only place in the New World that Spain never colonized.

Mohawk:
Mohawk (cognate with the Narraganset Mohowaùuck, 'they eat (animate) things,' hence 'man-eaters') The most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They called themselves Kaniengehaga, 'people of the place of the flint.'_In the federal council and in other intertribal assemblies the Mohawk sit with the tribal phratry, which is formally called the "Three Elder Brothers" and of which the other members are the Seneca and the Onondaga. Like the Oneida, the Mohawk have only 3 clans, namely, the Bear, the Wolf, and the Turtle. The tribe is represented in the federal council by 9 chiefs of the rank of roianer (see Chiefs), being 3 from every clan. These chiefships were known by specific names, which were conferred with the office. These official titles are Tekarihoken, Haienhwatha, and Satekarihwate, of the first group; Orenrehkowa, Deionhehkon, and Sharenhowanen, of the second group; and Dehennakarine, Rastawenserontha, and Shoskoharowanen, of the third group. The first two groups or clans formed an intratribal phratry, while the last, or Bear clan group, was the other phratry. The people at all times assembled by phratries, and each phratry occupied aside of the council fire opposite that occupied by the other phratry. The second title in the foregoing list has been Anglicized into Hiawatha.
The Conestoga waged war against them so vigorously for 10 years that for the second time the Mohawk were overthrown so completely that they appeared to be extinct. About this time (?1614) the Dutch arrived in their country, and, being attracted by their beaver skins, they furnished the Mohawk and their congeners with firearms, in order that the pelts might be obtained in greater abundance. The purpose of the Dutch was admirably served, but the possession of firearms by the Mohawk and their confederates rendered it easy for them to conquer their adversaries, whom they routed and filled with terror not alone by the deadly effect but even by the there sound of these weapons, which hitherto had been unknown. Thenceforth the Mohawk and their confederates became formidable adversaries and were victorious most everywhere, so that by 1660 the conquests of the Iroquois confederates, although they were not numerous, extended over nearly 600 leagues of territory. The Mohawk at that time numbered not more than 500 warriors and dwelt in 4 or 5 wretched villages. The accounts of Mohawk migrations previous to the historical period are largely conjectural. Some writers do not clearly differentiate between the Mohawk and the Huron tribes at the north and west and from their own confederates as a whole.

Creek:
Before the middle of the 16th century the Creek controlled almost all of Georgia. At that time the Cherokee (and later whites) began to pressure them to move inland. A "tremendous battle" occurred at Slaughter Gap in Lumpkin County in the late 1600's. After this battle the Creek retreated to a line roughly south of the Etowah River. A later battle in Cherokee County forced the Creek south to the Chattahoochee and Flint(Thronateeskee) Rivers and west to the Coosa(mostly in Alabama), hence the terms Upper Creek and Lower Creek became common references to the now separate tribes.
During the American Revolution the Creek Nation was generally successful in maintaining its neutrality, although factions of the tribe fought on either the British or American sides. In November, 1783, two minor chiefs (Tallassee and Cusseta) ceded Creek land between the Tugaloo and Apalachee Rivers. After the cession, relations between the state of Georgia and the Creek Nation worsened and on April 2, 1786 the Creek Nation declared war. Attacks against settlers on Creek land were carried out. In spite of two attempts at treaty (Shoulderbone, 1786; New York, 1790) there was no sustained peace on the Georgia frontier until after the War of 1812. Although most of the incidents were relatively minor, settlers on the boundary between the Creek Nation and the state of Georgia were always fearful of a raid.
Chief McIntosh_William McIntosh was a leader of the Creek Nation from Coweta. The mixed-blood son of a Scottish trader and Creek mother, McIntosh had been called on frequently to deal with the settlers in the area. Over the years the violence had been decreasing and the Creek Indians aligned with McIntosh were viewed as "friendly". Repeated attacks by the Red Sticks and whites lead to open warfare on the frontier of the Creek Nation. With emotions aroused by the Shawnee warrior Tecumseh, the Red Sticks sought to avenge an surprise attack on a village with an attack on Fort Mims near the mouth of the Alabama River in August, 1813. While the numbers engaged are estimates, and the estimates vary widely, according to Benjamin W. Griffith in McIntosh and Weatherford, the Creek numbered 700 men against 340 mostly irregular soldiers. The Creek breached the exterior wall, quickly disposed of the soldiers and began killing civilians. Lurid details of the battle reached Georgia and Tennessee.
A group of about 5,000 volunteers (mostly farmers and miners from Tennessee) led by General Andrew Jackson were joined by both Creek and Cherokee forces in an attempt to defeat the Red Sticks. Troops under Jackson's command avenged the deaths at Fort Mims on a number of occasions, killing the women and children of the Creek faction. After defeating the Red Sticks, Jackson, a notorious land speculator, forced the entire Creek Nation to cede one-third of its land to the United States on very favorable terms. By 1820 the removal of the Creek Nation had become a major platform for the Democratic Party in Georgia. Elected in 1823, Governor George Troup saw the Creek as a serious problem. As the Creeks began to assimilate American culture, they posed a threat in that men moving west from the coast might have a harder time of disposing of the Indians. Troup felt the Indians should be moved to the Western Territory of the Louisiana Purchase, an idea proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1803. By 1827, the Creek were gone. The Native American land cessions to the state of Georgia ended with the Cherokee "Trail of Tears."

Cree: The Cree lived across the north into the Canadian prairies and in Montana, the Dakotas and Minnesota. They lived as far east as the Hudson to the James Bay and as far west as Alberta and the Great Slave Lake. Language: They spoke Cree, a language of the Algonquin family.
Daily Life: The Cree depended entirely on hunting and fishing, as well as gathering wild roots and fruits. They lived in buffalo skin tipis and traveled by birch bark canoes. Women would dress the skins after a hunt and were experts in using porcupine quills in their everyday needs to dress things up. Men often married two sisters at the same time. There is no evidence of a clan system. The most important religious ceremony was the Sun Dance. The Cree made sacrifices to their gods with Wisukatcak the most important spiritual entity. The dead were buried under a mound of stones with their belongings buried with them or they were destroyed by the grave.
History: During the 17th and 18th century, the Cree began to expand their territory. They did this for a number of reasons; one of the most important reasons was the demand for trading pelts by the English and the French. The Crees were divided into two divisions – the Woodland and the Plains. The Plains Cree moved from the forest into the plains following the buffalo. They acquired guns and horses from trading with the Europeans which were useful when raiding or when they were at wars with other tribes. The wars with the Blackfoot and the Sioux were leading causes, as was small pox, to the dwindling numbers of the Cree population. The Woodland Cree stayed in the forest.

Explaining the Image of "Le Fils De Fanon" Earth, Technology, The Moon & The American Flag

The Main Image of "Le Fils De Fanon"
Just to explain a few of the elements in the main picture on this blog.
The American Flag: Growing up, we had an American flag hanging in the basement/garage. It was a child's American Flag. From my earliest memories, the basement/garage was a strange and yet, almost magical place. The garage door opened, but we had no car, and the long driveway leading up to the street, was like some type of pre-verbal esplanade in my mind. Not knowing what a car was, or what the driveway was, or why the door that opened was so large and wide and made so much noise when it opened, i just accepted it. But it remained a powerful image/sound/experience in my mind. It took on special significance.

The fact that the Flag was there, seemed to make sense. i guess...

Something drug experience researchers and psychologist understand, is that the human mind, will make associations between objects it finds together. This fact has resulted in humans being able to figure out basic facts about causalities and effects, and also to manipulate this tendency, to associate objects and things that are not usually found together. perhaps, "technology" is merely this fulfillment of promise of man to manipulate his environment through purposed association. In any event, the American flag in my basement, was a part of this set up mentioned above. Also, my brother used to give a few puppet shows in the basement, and he would set up his puppet show right underneath the American flag. I think on purpose. And so, Carnivals, entertainment and even circuses became associated in my mind with the American flag before I knew what it was. Once I found out what it was and what it stood for, It was impossible for me to break this initial association with the flag. And as I came to know other countries flag's, the American flag, always was the flag that didn't belong.

The long, thick red and white stripes, looked to me like clown pants. The stars, were just stars, but there were so many. No other flag has the elements of the American flag. And so, I have usually kept an American flag in my home. It's not about being patriotic. It's about being an American. It's about associating all of these images and understandings. To me the flag means, novelty, life, history, accomplishment, reverence, silliness... and... I don't know... that's part of the reason I like it so. It still does not have a real, solid meaning. It is a collage in my mind.

The Moon: The moon to me, is something that when I look at the heavens, it reminds me, and reassures me, that I am on Earth, and on the same earth, that I have been on since my earliest memory. Somewhere deep inside, I feel that even if I were dead, and lived a million lives, all distinct and separate from one another, if i were to look upon the moon, I would feel, the faint trace of all of the other lives I had lived.... in fact, that's how I feel now. No memory of those lives, just the feeling, that they have been lived and the moon was an accompaniment to them all.

Earth: Our home planet. Abstract, strange, inexplicable, harsh, loving, benign, plentiful, strange... just... everything.

Technology: the image of the man in a space suit, is really, one of the best ways in which to demonstrate this idea, and all it means.

Putting them all together: I'm not sure, but they are all powerful images, and under this one image, everything that could possibly be said on this blog, is overshadowed, and pulled into a coherent collective, under this image. it's a good representation for everything i could possibly say as a human, on Earth.

The Truth About Black History

One of the wonderful things about Black history is that you learn things that no-one else really knows. And the longer you study it, the more opportunities you have to reflect on it and realize the contrast between Black History and the standard perception of Americans, that does not include Black history.

This may seem all very abstract, but it is very real.

Now, about 5 years into my study of Black History in earnest, I've had a very simple, yet profound realization.

When this nation has come to the point where every person, studies Black history like a Black history expert, then we'll know that the U.S. has experienced an essential, and needed psychological/philosophical epoch.

The point is, that Black history, is United States history. The experience of Africans in America, is a vital and important story in how this nation functions, and operates. It's hypocrisy, it's unfairness, it's failings in providing security, liberty, justice, basic rights, and it's active contribution to disparity and injustice.

Every failure and discrimination today; against women, gays, "enemy combatants" unregistered immigrants, has shared roots in the precedence set by the treatment of the American African.

When elementary, high school and college curriculum includes African American history, not by name, rather, included in it's rightful position as American history, then we'll know, that this nation has not only experienced the needed philosophical change, but that it's also begun to address, in earnest, the disparities and logical conclusions for how this nation needs to change to fulfill it's promise to provide liberty and justice for all.