Dear Supporters:
Peltier had been pushing “Fake News” long before it became catch phrase.
“But suddenly this beautiful and peaceful morning was cut short by the staccato sound of gunfire." (Fn.1) Totally Fake News…
The recent dustup in Washington D.C. at a March for Life rally, coinciding with an Indigenous Peoples March, involving students from Covington Catholic, a parochial high school in northern Kentucky, and the drumming and chanting of Omaha Tribe member and Native American activist Nathan Phillips led to the media circulation of a short video that presented a biased and out-of-context account of the incident. The video and accompanying narratives utterly condemned the students until the Fake News collapsed under its own weight when the whole, true story surfaced.
What was missing was Phillips injecting himself into the students gathered waiting for a bus and getting into the face of one of the students and then later claiming that the students made reference to building a wall.
Beyond the short viral clip there were roughly two hours of videos that provided the context of the students’ restrained behavior in response to the foul-mouthed racist taunting of members of Black Hebrew Israelites.
The Left went berserk with malicious posts and tweets calling for expulsion and criticism of the school, many of which were deleted without explanation or apology, but even the Diocese of Covington was initially duped and offered a public condemnation of their own students.
Viewing all the videos, the students should be commended for their restraint and not taking the bait from the racist BHI’s taunts and denigration of a black student or Phillips’ singling out one of the students for no apparent reason. Were the students being set up to force a confrontation? It would appear so, but they didn’t allow that to happen. (Fn.2)
Phillips gave a number of interviews and was quoted providing a skewed version of Native American history, much like Peltier, blending in folklore and myth:
“This is indigenous land, you’re not supposed to have walls here. We never did for a millennia. We never had a prison; we always took care of our elders, took care of our children, always provided for them, taught them right from wrong. I wish I could see that energy… put that energy to making this country really, really great.”
No, there were no walls but anyone suggesting that this continent was a peaceful place before the Pilgrims landed and the settlers pushed westward needs to revisit that history. There are many examples of Indian on Indian violence and conquests. Some tribes were downright brutal and murderous to their native brethren, enslaving peaceful tribes and totally eliminating others.
Phillips, a long time follower of the Profit of Profits boasted in 1999 that he credited Peltier with his own presence at an earlier Washington D.C. demonstration. (Fn.3)
As for the Black Hebrew Israelites, a group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group” comprised of “black supremacists,” Phillips should share with them that as horrible as the Trail of Tears was, many Cherokee brought with them to Oklahoma their own African slaves and that many Native Americans were slave owners. (Fn.4)
“In the Spirit of Coler and Williams”
Ed Woods
Footnotes:
1) Prison Writings, Leonard Peltier, p.123; the first lie; and the Big Lie, “Mr. X did it.”
(Last accessed 1/22/19)
(last accessed 1/22/19) http://wwwnoparolepeltiercom-justice.blogspot.com/2019/01/peltier-public-charity-part-2-inurement.html
4) http://www.fox19.com/2019/01/22/report-black-hebrew-israelites-confronting-covington-catholic-students-hate-group/(Last accessed 1/22/19)
In its magazine, “Intelligence Report,” the Southern Poverty Law Center calls the Black Hebrew Israelites a hate group that is “becoming more militant.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports, "Around the country, thousands of men and women have joined black supremacist groups on the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement, a black nationalist theology that dates to the 19th century."
Hebrew Israelites believe African-Americans are God's chosen people. The movement goes by several affiliated names. A Baltimore-based organization is affiliated with a central group in New York City that goes by the name of the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ. The sect is obsessed with hatred for whites and Jews. Baltimore is one of 29 local branches, according to the Southern Poverty Center.Native Americans and slave ownership: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-native-american-slaveholders-complicate-trail-tears-narrative-180968339/(Last accessed 1/22/19)
