Native American Spiritual Rights

What is in Your Heart They Cannot Take

Greetings from the dungeon in February of '98. Winter is such a lovely time of year. Even when I'm in the dungeon I have my memories to keep me peaceful. I love to just walk in the cold, brisk air and take in the smell and feel and presence of the Great Spirit. But in so many ways prison is such a sad place to be, seeing the brothers from the reservations with such gloom on their faces, some of them in the white man's prison for the first time ever, and so many of them doing time for minor alcohol-related crimes.

There was this older Lakota man on the yard one time in the middle of a snowstorm. You could hardly see him, and Security had ordered all the prisoners off the yard because visibility was almost down to nil. He was very calmly sitting cross-legged on Mother Earth with his shirt off as the snow began to pile upon his shoulders. It was obvious he was praying with a Sacred Pipe he didn't have, and when I gently touched him on the shoulder he passed to me his invisible Pipe. I took it from him with great respect and puffed on it as I turned to each of the Four Sacred Directions. Then I passed it to the invisible Spirit that was standing to my left. The Brother's lips were turning blue as I helped him to his feet and said, "Let's go inside and drink some coffee." He smiled and said, "I'll be home before the days grow long." I didn't know what he meant, but smiled in return. He followed me into the building and I could feel the presence of his Spirit, and it was overpowering.

I knew that here was a man I could learn from, but in the spring the guards beat him to death over in the hole because they could not make him stop singing a song about his people. Although he had a life sentence, he went home before the days grew long.

In Texas, our Indian religion is against the law, and I see how much the traditional brothers suffer from being denied the religion of their Grandfathers and Grandmothers. For those sisters and brothers who wonder why the most important thing in their lives -- their religion -- has been banned and made against the law, I have written the following poem. I pray my words will lend some comfort to those sisters and brothers who need comforting, and perhaps my poem will help others not of our faith to see what a brutal injustice it is for the prisoncrats to suppress Indian religion in their Iron Houses.

WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART THEY CANNOT TAKE. DO THEY FORBID YOU TO HAVE A SWEAT LODGE? YOU ARE SITTING IN ONE EVERY DAY. THE ROOF OF YOUR PRISON IS THE SACRED COVERING; THE BARS THE SACRED WILLOW; THE STONE FLOOR IS YOUR MOTHER; THE SACRED ROCKS ARE HEATED IN THE FIRE OF YOUR INDIAN HEART. TAKE THE WATER FROM THE SINK IN YOUR CELL AND POUR IT OVER YOUR HEAD AND YOU SHALL BE PURIFIED. DO THEY TAKE AWAY YOUR PIPE, YOUR FEATHERS, YOUR MEDICINE, OR YOUR PRIVILEGES? WHO CAN TAKE YOUR POWER? WHO CAN TAKE YOUR DREAM? WHO TAKES YOUR VISIONS? YOUR PIPE IS YOUR SOUL. IT HAS NO FORM. YET, LOOK AT YOUR BROTHER. DO YOU SEE THE LIVING PIPE? YOU HAVE NO FEATHERS? THEY ARE INVISIBLE. YET WAKAN TANKA KNOWS YOU WEAR THEM AND PRAY WITH THEM. YOUR HOLY MEDICINE IS YOUR TEARS. IT IS GOOD TO CRY LIKE A MAN FOR WISDOM. WHEN YOU SEE YOUR BROTHER CRYING, GO TO HIM AND LICK THE TEARS FROM HIS CHEEKS AND YOU SHALL HAVE MEDICINE. THESE ARE YOUR PRIVILEGES. YOUR POWER IS TO RESIST THROUGH YOUR WILL. STRENGTHEN YOUR WILL. WITH EVERY TEAR YOU GROW STRONGER BECAUSE THEY FEAR YOUR WILL TO ENDURE. THEY ARE ALREADY DEFEATED BECAUSE THEY ABUSE WHAT THEY CANNOT CONQUER. YOUR LIFE IS THEIR DEFEAT.

Standing Deer

Medicine Bags-R-Us

MEDICINE BAGS-R-US:
TDCJ does us another favor
On June 10, 1999, I had a wonderful visit with Lenny Foster. This is the only visit with a spiritual leader that has been granted since I entered the Texas prison cyst'm in May of 1993. The visit was vital and refreshing and Lenny's prayers and songs renewed my spirit which was flagging after 23 summers in some of the worst Iron houses of Greed.

The week following Lenny's visit, I sent a message to tell Lenny that I would consider it a great honor if he would put together a medicine bag for me. Meanwhile, I went to Chaplain Downs, who is the Christian preacher in charge of religious programs at this prison. I told the good chaplain that I wanted to make arrangements for Lenny to prepare my medicine bag and bring it in to me at our next meeting where we are hoping to be permitted to pray with the Sacred Pipe.

Chaplain Downs informed me that Lenny Foster could not bring me a medicine bag, nor could he prepare one for me. The only way I will be allowed to have a medicine bag is to order it from an "approved vendor". My medicine bag cannot be made sacred by my spiritual advisor, but must instead be bought from a commercial, profit-making business similiar to "MEDICINE BAGS-R-US". The preacher gave me a flyer advertising the medicine bag that the "approved vendor" would sell me. Their ad is reproduced below:

(on a page with a border of feathers) "The Adobe has put together a medicine bundle that is institution approved to fit the needs of Native American ceremony & worship. It contains the following: 1 feather, 7 polished assorted stones, 1 cup size shell, 1 plain headband, 1 leather pouch (color will vary due to availability of leather)

All bundles are ready to use and are guaranteed to have been smudged and blessed! Total for this kit will be $16.95, which includes tax, shipping and handling. To order send check or money order to The Adobe.

Meets AD 30 7.30 (Rev.) Requirements.

number of kits @ $16.95 ENCLOSED_$_____________

ALLOW 4-6 weeks for delivery" (end of sales pitch)

Today, I sit in my cage and wonder which of our winged brothers or sisters they plucked the feather from; who "smudged and blessed" the "ready to use" medicine bundle they sell; and, whether the sacred stones are made of plastic.

A long time ago, my teacher taught me that there is a spirit dwelling in a sacred stone. He called it tunkan wasicun, which means roughly "spirit of the stone". I have to wonder how carefully these stones were selected, and whether the selection was done in a sacred manner by the faceless medicine man -- if there is one -- who works for and promotes the sale of "prison approved medicine bags, Inc."

Is his name something like Chief Piercing Eyes, of the Thunder Chicken band?

by Standing Deer
June 27, 1999
Because it is nearly impossible to obtain factual information about what's going on in the world outside my cage, my report entitled "PHOENIX RISING: The New RFRA in Texas" is completely wrong. I wrote my article on June 2, 1999, and George Dubyou Bush, Jr. signed the RFRA into law but only after prisoners were excluded at the last minute. He signed the Texas RFRA bill on June 10, 1999 sans Indians. Prisoners were denied protection under the bill due to the protests of right-wing religious fascists who demanded that prisoners and homosexuals be denied equal protection of the law. Prisoners were removed; homosexuals were not. Prisoners can't vote; homosexuals can. Simple as that. The Christian right-wing has one of the most powerful lobbies in Texas, and they were concerned that the RFRA would put an end to their right to discriminate against prisoners and homosexuals for religious reasons.

The chief protester was The Justice Fellowship which is the Public Policy affiliate of Chuck Colson's ministries to prisoners. Chuck Colson didn't need protection for his hustle because he is already in with TDCJ thick as thieves. Plus, he is dispensing the religion of the dominant culture.

Pat Nolan, President of Fascist Fellowship Oh, excuse me but Justice Fellowship seems to me to be an oxymoron, anyway, he sniveled about the Gays not being kicked out of the bill along with the prisoners, saying, "This is the first victory for Gay Rights groups around the country to get a civil rights exception carved out of the religious freedom bill!"

Also protesting prisoners and homosexuals in the bill was Gary Bauer, Former President of The Family Research Council and rival of Bush, Jr. for the GOP nomination.

Contrary to the view I expressed in my article about the Native American Church being our champions, I have learned, to my utter dismay, that the NAC does not support religious rights for prisoners. The position of the Native American Church is that prisoners should wait until they get out to practice their religion. I suppose they think that if we never get out -- as most of us in Texas prisons never do -- we should have no religion at all.

Here is the mindset of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) when it comes to Indian religion. In the June 17-23, 1999 issue of CURRENT magazine, Jenny Browne interviewed John V. Martinez, Director of the Prisoners Defense Committee in San Antonio. In that article, Glen Castlebury, TDCJ, Director of Public Information (read Propaganda Minister) is reported to have said, when asked by Jenny Browne about spiritual advisors and sweat lodges, that TDCJ needs to prevent inmates from selecting what Castlebury sees as "inappropriate spiritual advisors" from the Ku Klux Klan or radical Muslim groups. Castlebury also, says, "We will fight until the last court with Native Americans about that sweat lodge thing."

So then it's settled:
We won't be allowed
to have
Ku Klux Klansmen
as spiritual leaders
and radical Muslims
can't run our sweat lodges.

In George Dubyou Bush. Jr.'s
Execution Capitol
of the Western World
IGNORANCE
REIGNS
SUPREME
and all's right
with the religious right
because
THAT SWEAT LODGE THING IS DEAD!!!