Opinion

Wambli Sina Win: Eagles disappear into sunset of termination

Monday, October 3, 2011

As a child in the 1950’s, I remember sitting in Tribal Council meetings where only Lakota was spoken. Despite my youth, I realized within the serious words spoken by my elders, that our people must be united to defend our tribe’s existence against this strange word, “termination.”

My grandfather, John Fire-Lame Deer, spoke of the many beautiful faces of nature that he experienced as a boy. The prairie grizzly bear, elk, golden eagle and the prairie dog were a part of his world. He had a wonderful sense of humor, commenting that his face was like the “Badlands.”

Grandpa also spoke of men whom I also knew as Lakota grandfathers in our kinship system. These men were not only warriors and heroes, but prophets and men of great spiritual power. Many people outside of our community would never have known of them, were it not for the “miracles” they conducted time after time in their ceremonies. Most died in circumstances the white man would call “poverty” but they died with honor and were treasured in our peoples’ hearts.

Prior to the white man, our lands once echoed with the thunder of buffalos’ hooves and our people were strong, brave and many. The eagles had an unlimited expanse of the skies above grandmother earth to roam without outside threats by man. Our children bathed in the rivers and streams that our forefathers left uncorrupted by their past contact. As a child in the 1950’s, I too bathed and swam in the same streams as my grandfather.

Today the skies and prairies are nearly absent of the faces of nature’s immeasurable presence. Today the words of my grandfather would seem as a myth or legend to our children and grandchildren. The prairie grizzly fearlessly lumbered through “termination” into the sunset of the spirit world. His remaining companions, the prairie dog, the badger, the many species of our two legged winged messenger, the eagle, are hunted. Even the very land that my ancestors and I walked upon as a child is being “terminated” in its natural state, “ikciya macoche.”

Is it not ironic that within the world that we Native Americans have inherited from the sacrifices of our ancestors, our fate is controlled by the very people who attempted to terminate and exterminate us within the same ray of the setting sun and path that our brother, the prairie grizzly vanished?

Now as a Lakota lawyer, I, Wambli Sina Win, understand what termination and extinction mean. I have been through many years of life and school and much more as a traditional Indian. I share the same scars of battles as my ancestors and have traveled the same roads I once traveled with my grandfather, seeking the familiar faces of legend today that I once knew as a child. I am angered and insulted by their absence and the disrespect shown their memory and living examples today.

Like the prairie dog, my people have learned that the hunter never announces his presence. Long before their intentions of murder were revealed, the cavalry sent scouts out to see where my people were located. Then only when the cavalry had superior numbers and position over my people and the groundwork in place, did they either attack us outright, overwhelming us with sheer numbers and weaponry or they sent scouts out to “parley” with proposals and threatening terms for our token input.

I remember as a youth my grandfather’s stories about his father’s memories. He spoke of the total destruction of land, nature and life as if they were one, “mitakuye oyasin,” all my relations. When our land was taken, we mourned not only those absent within their tipis but those in nature who would fall within our absence. The great and mighty bear faced down his own enemies alone but our humble ancestors faced the hordes with courage and their collective strength.

When the white man came, my ancestors saw them marking trees with their strange instruments and surveying our homeland. Some of these men were sent to scout opportunity by identifying the resources and potential resistance. Indeed, the white man’s desires ventured far beyond his own picket fences so he could possess the very depths and heights of grandmother earth including all that existed within, man and beast. Congress, courts and at times, the President and his Executive Office, have all enabled and “legalized” the taking of our homelands.

When weakness is sensed, opportunists ride in to attack, terminate our residence within our homelands and destroy the indigenous native species of creation who are our relatives and our land, “Unci Macoche,” Grandmother Earth. Which is worse, one’s immediate death or a plan for termination or extinction which is designed to extinguish generations as well as culture, spirituality and a way of life?

As a Lakota, I shared the earth with holy men, Heyoka, the grizzly and the shadow of the eagle but I have not shared their differing fates, thanks to the courage and collective strength of my ancestors. Unlike the Lakota, there was never a threat that the mighty grizzly or eagle could not defend alone. They were the Chiefs of the earth and air. Unfortunately, these magnificent creatures of nature who can overcome any natural enemy alone in their natural setting, cannot go into court or hire lobbyists to advance their cause. They have no “safety net” when threatened. We the Red Nation and our friends must speak for them.

Imagine an empty tipi with no father, provider or security for the future and the extinction of a species. The majestic eagle is also a two legged sacred messenger for most of the Native American tribes on this continent without whom it would be almost impossible to practice our religion and spirituality.

Federal law provides some protection for the rights of Native Americans to exclusive access to eagle feathers and parts and some courageous Assistant U.S. Attorneys have fought legal battles, some of which lasted for years to uphold these laws. Yet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would undo years of hard work of these federal prosecutors, the laws passed by Congress and upheld by the courts.

The USFWS is opening the door to sportsmen, master falconers, breeding, keeping, transferring, possibly bartering eagles and their offspring, judging by the nature of the ten questions being asked. Note that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been quick to say that it’s October 4, 2011 deadline for comment regarding Docket No. FWS-R9-MB-2011-0020; 91200-121-9BPP, “Migratory Bird Permits; Changes in the Regulations Governing Raptor Propagation” pertains only to an “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” and that at this time they’re really not proposing any changes. This is nonsense. Since when throughout our history have we Native Americans ever been able to trust this Agency to protect our interests?

My great-grandfather, the first Chief Lame Deer, and his village of both Cheyenne and Sioux, did not await until the cavalry of Bear Coat Miles was upon them for they knew they were to be annihilated and made an example of what happens to Indians who resist. Chief Lame Deer looked within his heart and into the Great Mystery. As Chief Lame Deer looked up into sky, he knew his decisions and footsteps would lead him into the spirit world.

In spite of this, he knew he must delay the blood thirsty horde of soldiers and stood his ground, along with a handful of Strong Heart warriors. Bear Coat Miles in his arrogance and with superior numbers, encircled the empty tipis of a retreating village, outsmarting himself. Chief Lame Deer knew his sacrifice would give life to future generations of his people. Much like the brave warriors of yesterday, those of the animal nation now extinct, share the same earth with no marker to sting the conscience of those who have and will continue to exterminate the messengers of the Great Mystery.

Like the arrogant Bear Coat Miles who tried to sneak quietly behind my people before attacking, Dr. George T. Allen, USFWS Chief, Branch of Permits and Regulations said to me in an e-mail dated September 27, 2011 the following:

“Should the Service decide to propose to allow propagation of eagles, to allow production of eagle hybrids, or to make other changes to the regulations, it will conduct government-to-government consultation as appropriate, and you'll have an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes. At this time, however, the Service has made no such decision.  

Do you really believe the USFWS goes to all this trouble because they have “made no such decision”? This is an example of the new “Anti-Indianism.” Dr. Allen says “should the Service decide” and if consultation is “appropriate.” Where is the Indian presence? Don’t we Native Americans have any say about culture and what is in our world?

Shouldn’t Congress represent the Native Americans also? What is next, since our birds and animals have no real protection when an Agency has unlimited discretion to do as it pleases? The Lakota recognize and acknowledge acts of bravery. I acknowledge before the people, Steve Campbell, a lawyer who stands within the Sac and Fox of Iowa and a veteran, Dan King, of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Gary Siftar, a Cherokee wildlife rehabilitator and all of our ancestors who stood before the tides of fate and became a shelter of our future generations.

I asked Wiconi Was’te, my Heyoka son, “Who will defend the Great Mystery’s creation against abuse?” He said to me, “When man has failed and the storms of life approach, who will mistake thunder for a brother? It will not be creation but the warrior and coward who are fearful of themselves. While lightning strikes both the wicked and foolish down, one should fear thunder which echoes within one’s generations. The power of the unseen is beyond man’s sight and medical intervention.”

Keep the eagles from disappearing into the sunset of termination! Send a comment letter by the deadline, October 4, 2011 to:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Division of Policy and Directives Management; Public Comments Processing
4401 North Fairfax Drive
MS 2042–PDM
Attention: FWS– R9–MB–2011–0020
Arlington, VA 22203–1610

Or online go to http://www.regulations.gov and enter keyword: FWS– R9–MB–2011–0020. At the top select the “Submit a Comment Box" then Click SEARCH. Click on the only title: Migratory Bird Permits Raptor Propagation Scroll back to the top and select: the orange Submit a comment. You can leave any comment you want, but please answer the 10 questions they ask for. You can also see examples of answers on Wambli’s Facebook.

Wambli Sina Win is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Bacone College Criminal Justice Studies Department in Muskogee, Okla. Her grandfather was John Fire, Chief Lame Deer Tahca Uste, a well known Lakota Holy Man from the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One of her sons is also a medicine man. She has served as a Tribal Judge for the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a Tribal Attorney and as a legal Instructor for the U.S. Indian Police Academy at Artesia, N.M. You may contact Wambli Sina Win, J.D. at wambliswin@gmail.com and on Facebook