NONA Award

What began with the British and General Amherst's "innoclutaion ... of this execrable race" by issuing blankets used by smallpox victims to Indians, eventually turned into a benevolent program of extinction. Even now, BIA has set upon a campaign of eventual destruction of the Tribes by manipulating the policies governing the issuance of Certificate Degree of Indian Blood cards. The Inter-Tribal Council of Oklahoma has demanded in a joint letter that BIA issue written guidelines in an attempt to bring this cancer to the forefront.

Even membership in the "Native American Church" is restricted by federal law to those of "one quarter degree or greater Indian blood." This is, by definition, a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

We (the American Indians) are the only ethnic or racial group that begins their name with "American." While we love America, we know we must change America's heart. This is not just a matter of "pride" like the diatribes of the 60's and 70's, this is a matter of survival. Did the government give you your name? Did BIA choose your color? Were you created by God or bureaucracy? No one tells me who I am. I was created by God as I am. He saw fit to make me a mixture of White and Red, He must indeed have had a reason to do so. No man, no political body, will ever make me in their own image.

Those who receive this award have made a bold stand against tyranny. They stand, sometimes alone, for Freedom and Justice. They will never forget Wounded Knee.

UPDATED NOTE:

On September 19,1997, Ada Deer of the BIA, with a mere fax, informed the Osage Nation that the BIA no longer recognized their duly approved Constitution, or the Osage Nation. This reduced them to the status of a mineral estate council only. Truly the Trail of Tears continues.

July 1999

The Lakota continue their fight for existance, the Pine Ridge Reservation suffering the deaths of two young men: Wilson "Wally" Black Elk and Ronald HardHeart. Left dead in a ditch, just oustide WhiteClay, Nebraska, their murders go uninvestigated. The American Indian Movement and the Great Oglala Nation, have moved against the liquor stores in this little town of 22, legally on the reservation. This town exists for no other reason than to sell alcohol to the Indians of Pine Ridge. The press again ignores the plight of the rightful inhabitants of this land. Meanwhile, murders of Indians in Rapid City and towns across the country go uninvestigated or arrogantly marked off as sucicides. The BIA moves against elders among the Hopi and Dine'...pushing them from their land and killing their cattle. People living in the "Bennett Freeze" cannot legally repair their homes, less than ten percent have running water and less than three percent have electricity. And all the while, the press does nothing and these atrocities go unreported to the general public.