I MUST attend. I SEE we have MUCH MORE IN COMMON with “National AIM” than with any other Indigenous, non-Nation specific, Organization. We have Common Roots, Common Goals, and a Common Outlook. Hoka Hey. INTERNATIONAL AIM IS COMMITTED TO WORKING TOGETHER WITH THOSE WHO KNOW AFFINITY AND RELATEDNESS. . …. “Dennis Banks, founding member of the American Indian Movement, has issued a call for the reinvigorating of AIM. Banks, who served as the National Field Director of AIM, calls for a National and International gathering of AIM families, chapters, support groups and individuals to be held in October in Green Bay, WI.”
Dennis Banks Calls for American Indian Movement National Meeting
American Indian Movement National Meeting
October 22 – October 25 2014
Radisson Hotel & Conference Center Green Bay, WI
Dennis Banks, founding member of the American Indian Movement, has issued a call for the reinvigorating of AIM. Banks, who served as the National Field Director of AIM, calls for a National and International gathering of AIM families, chapters, support groups and individuals to be held in October in Green Bay, WI.
All members past, present and future generations are encouraged to attend.
The gathering seeks to address issues impacting Indian Country such as:
1. Keystone XL Pipeline
2. Non compliance of several states on ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act)
3. Non compliance of several states on NAGPRA (Native American Grave Protection and Rehabilitation Act.
Also to be covered:
1. Allow for the development of Youth and Elder groups to form under the National umbrella of AIM.
2. To create senior advisory groups of AIM to assist and guide new leadership.
3. That all AIM Members who are officials of AIM, be retired at the age of 60; they will be grandfathered into the advisory group.
Boarding Schools- There will be a International Tribunal on the Abuse of Indigenous Human Rights sponsored by Blue Skies Foundation.
AIM2
Hau Mitakiepi, on this May 1, It is powerful to Acknowledge Revolutionary Doings here upon Turtle Island. It is Integral for Indigenous Authority and Aboriginal Sovereignty to Recognize Like-Beings. As we prepare to Do our Throwing The Ball Ceremony on the Lands of the Independent Oglala nation,there in Wounded Knee,
In this Spirit, I AIM Recognizes The Black Beret Liberation Movement as A Brother Entity, Sharing the Common Goal of Freedom.
“Malik El-Ghani launched the Los Angeles chapter of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP) less than a year ago, and in a short amount of time came to become the group’s West Coast Regional Chairman. While serving as Chairman, El-Ghani was instrumental in launching food security, education, and economic initiatives, and growing the West Coast Region’s membership substantially. But his ties to the NBPP have been abruptly severed, and El-Ghani has moved forward with the founding of a new Black Nationalist organization, the Black Beret Liberation Movement (BBLM).”
NATIONAL FLAG OF BBLM AND THE EXPLANATION OF ITS SYMBOLISM & COLORS
1.) BLACK: WE ARE THE MOTHERS AND FATHERS OF CIVILIZATION; WE WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO WALK THIS PLANET EARTH ;THE FIRST TO LOVE, TO HURT, TO CRY ETC. GENETICALLY , BIOLOGICALLY HISTORICALLY IT HAS BEEN PROVEN BY OUR SCHOLARS THAT WE ARE THE OLDEST PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET.
BLACK WOMAN IS THE FIRST GOD MAN HAS EVER KNOWN! THE BIBLICAL STORY OF ADAM AND EVE ACTUALLY IS A SYMBOLIC RENDERING OF THE ASTRONOMICAL TALE OF THE ANCIENT KEMETIC WORLD’S GREAT YEAR BASED ON THE PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES WHICH BABA CHARLES FINCH III ILLUSTRATED IN HIS BOOK “THE ECHOES OF THE OLD DARK LAND.” NOT ONLY HAVE OUR LANDS BEEN COLONISED BUT ALSO OUR BELIEF IN A GOD WHO LOOKS LIKE US AND WAS THE FIRST PROVIDER, THE FIRST TO PROVIDE SHELTER, COMFORT ETC. WITH A DOUBT THE BLACK WOMAN IS THE FIRST GOD MAN HAS EVER KNOWN !
BLACK IS THE SOURCE OF ALL COLOR; BLACK IS ALSO THE COLOR OF MELANOCYTES. MELANOCYTES ARE STIMULATING HORMONES (MSH) THAT GETS ITS NAME BECAUSE OF ITS EFFECTS ON MELANOCYTES.(SKIN CELLS THAT CONTAIN THE BLACK PIGMENT MELANIN) IT IS BECAUSE OF MELANIN THAT WE ARE CHILDREN OF THE STARS ! BECAUSE OF IT WE HAVE RYTHM AND A HIGHER MORAL SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG.
2.) THE HANDS: SYMBOLS OF POWER & STRENGTH, FAMILIARITY, MASTERY; LOGIC IS REPRESENTED BY THE RIGHT HAND AND EMOTIONS IS REPRESENTED BY THE LEFT HAND
3.) RED REPRESENT THE BLOOD WHICH IS THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE (CULTURE) THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE. THE CULTURE OF ALL BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA IS THAT OF REVOLUTION !
4.) GREEN IN ANCIENT TIMES REPRESENTED ASR THE ANCIENT KEMETIC GOD OF AGRICULTURE WHOM THE GREEKS CALL OSIRIS ;COLOR OF FERTILITY, LONGEVITY & ECONOMICS
5.) YELLOW; CORN,WHEAT, SYMBOLS OF TIME. WE KNOW THE TRUTH MUST BE REVEALED THAT TIME IS A NOUMEON OR SOMETHING WHICH ONLY TAKES PLACE IN THE MIND. DR. JOHN HENRIK CLARKE STATED THAT THE PAST, PRESENT AND THE FUTURE ARE CONNECTED BY THE ETERNAL PRESENT.
6.) PANTHER ON THE PROWL; ATTITUDE, MILITANT MINDED, DETERMINED IN AMERICA THE TERM “MILITANT” HAS BEEN CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH TERRORISTS WHICH THE BBLM IS NOT. THE WORD “MILITANT” ACTUALLY MEANS TO BE FOCUSED, DETERMINED, DEDICATED, COMMITTED WHICH THE BBLM IS TO OUR STRUGGLE.
7.) THE CIRCLE; THE CIRCLE IS AN ANCIENT SYMBOL OF THE SUPREME ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE AND IT REPRESENT MASTERY, PERFECTION, COMPLETION. THE CIRCLE ALSO REPRESENT ENERGY AS THE LAW OF PHYSICS STATE THAT ENERGY CANNOT BE CREATED NOR DESTROYED;IT MERELY CHANGES FORM. ALL ENERGY IS CONSTANT IN NATURE AND THIS SAME ENERGY IS THE BASE ELEMENT OF ALL THINGS IN CREATION OF THE KNOWN WORLD AND IT CAN BE MANIPULATED WITH THE RIGHT SKILL.
“Revolution Means Going Back To The Beginning.” —- Russell Means.
Liberation DEPENDS upon Revolution. Yet, the Invader/Usurper/Occupier INSISTS we are either evolving or devolving. We are NOT! We are Renewing Our Lifeways by Setting The Aesthetic Standards. These Things seem like nothing to many, but to Dreamers…
So, I AIM’s Design for Urban Planning Illustrates Revolution:
All Directions Point Inward. Toward The people. Toward The Heart, The Hearth… Within the Center Tipi Structure, Containing The Fire Without End, There Shall We School The Children, According To lakol Wicohan Kin. We Have Ways Of Teaching, And Learning.
These Ways do not discount or discredit the Knowing of Wasicu Ways, but Consider these Things according to a Standard, a Bell-weather, A Paradigm… A Lifeway. If One can See how the Arrow Heads make A Way For The Medicine Wheel, Within The Inherent Nature Of This Plan…
and If One can See how a Tiospaye, A Tewahe would Find, Nurture and Grow Root, then One can See The Future and Revolution.
Via Ehani Stories, WinterCount Keeping, Preparing The Artifacts Of Life, Out True Art, and By doing away with something as simple and insidious as the chair… We Revolve. We Begin to USE Our Elegant Artifacts of Life again for LIVING and not simply as curiosities.
The Wasicu gets us flippin to his trip via the SIMPLE Control Mechanisms of Time Keeping. The Clock and The Calendar. There should be few if any clocks among the Nation and surely we should replace THEIR calendar with our own Wintercount.
Our Ehani Stories are far more than the equivalent of the wasicu bedtime story, their fairy tales and falcehoods only serve to inculcate the Youth into believing in nothing, and constantly seeking True Authority.
Yes, the Youth SEEK Authority. If you ask the Invader, he will insist the Youth DEFY Authority. True Authority is Rooted. Author-ity, Authorship is necessary here, and WE are The Aboriginal Authors/Authorities. All the necessary components of a Complete Being are waiting for us, if only we get up out of THEIR chairs, off THEIR clock, and away from THEIR calendars.
Speaking of Time and Calendars… Today is the Day The Independent Oglala Nation was Realized at Wounded Knee, Lakotah Nation. This is a Day Of Celebration and Remembrance. Long Live The Spirit Of Russell Means.
Here is an example of a Wintercount. This is one that was kept by my Grandfathers, The White Swans, Minneconjou Lakotah. :
Within such Beings, are a Myriad of Knowing and Truth and Lifeway.
So I got out of prison in 1994. Was married, new car, finally got a good paying job. So much so that I purchased books to read during break times. One that I read was “Where White Men Fear To Tread”. The Autobiography of Russell Means. Wow. Life Changing. I quit working like I was and became “an artist”. I began doing the Native Art Shows and I was even winning Blue Ribbons and selling well. I grew my hair back out, like when I was a teenager, even longer, and had two braids, braided IN FRONT of my ears, representing Adult Lakotah Masculinity.
I took my Sister out to eat one time after winning big and selling well. She suddenly said “there’s Dennis Banks”. I turned to look, It was Russell Means. I got up, went to him, thanked him for his Struggle, and all he had done for the Cause, and for me. I thanked him for my long hair and what little I knew that far of Lakol Wicohan Ki. He listened, not looking at me, then he rose, and turned to me, he said he wanted my help at his Ranch to begin an Immersion School. I couldn’t do it then, as I was on parole, it was 1998. In 2001 we did a Presentation together at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was then that I showed him the designs for what is now the “I AIM Hard-Sided Tipi”.
In 2005 I visited him, Wanbli Koyake and I picked him up at the Racist City Airport and we spent good times together. I told him I was due to be considered for early release from parole. He said “it’s a no-brainer”. He was the ONLY one who felt as I did, that it was obvious I would be set free.
I was, in November 2005. In 2006 Wanbli Koyake and I went to visit him at The Ranch to introduce the “Oppressionist” Concept of Art. Russell IMMEDIATLEY was all in. We did a Show at Shamans Gallery in Hot Springs, and it was REVOLUTIONARY. We showed “Riding With Ghosts” there too.
That Summer, Tatanka Means and I did Hanbleciyapi, on two separate Hills, this was done at the Hesapa Sundance Grounds, and it was a 4 Day Vision Quest. Life Changing. Russell Means did much in his Lifetime, but what he did that is Most Important, is Restore Lakol Wicohan Ki. I remember Buckshot Knight telling me how Russell pulled up in a pickup truck early AIM Days and asked “Who hasn’t done their Vision Quest?”. A handful of Lakotah jumped in with their stuff and were “Put Up” en masse. I think about how over the course of more than 3 decades, Russell Sundanced.
He came to Greengrass to Support me during my fourth year Sundancing. He came over and talked to the Dancers. It was PERFECT, as I was being dogged by these guys, flag-waving amerikkkans, unwittingly, about how I had the US Flag in the dirt, stars to my feet, as a sort of rug to lay on during breaks. This was making them angrier and angrier. Russell’s Words that day were PERFECT. It is as though he had heard all they were saying about me being a nobody, bum, huffer, etc…Same old same old from the usual suspects who do not Know Dreaming. Same old story when they condemned me for “Riding With Ghosts” and Russell Means was there to defend me and the Movie.
That Flag was also used by me in a series of videos such as “What It Means To be An Amerikkkan Today”
I ended up Gifting that Flag to Russell the next year at The Hesapa Sundance. He LOVED that Flag. It is in a well-known photo of him, taken right after I draped it on his shoulders, and also in a very well done Painting/Portrait of Him. That Amerikkkan Flag and Russell Means… He turned our World Right Side Up By Turning It Upside Down. He showed us “How it is Done”, just like our Pipe Filling Song Says: “Friend, Do It This Way”.
Now, these years later, and after Russell’s Passing to the Spirit World, We are at a crossroad. Do we slumber once again and continue into the Amerikkkan Dream? Or do we Continue To Carry The True Fire Of Liberation? What Is That Fire? It IS Lakol Wicohan Ki. Wherein the Least are the Most, and Respect is Lived and breathed. Russell Lives Lakol Wicohan Ki, Those of Us Who Know, Know The Spirits, And Simply are Serene in this Knowing. Yet, We can easily See that Things Must Be Said, Knowings Must Be Shared, or AIM and The Movement will ONLY Be focused upon the weights and measures of the Oppressor for Identity, Solutions, Education, and “lifeways”. If we allow the inculcated to simply Take this from the People, The Oppressed, the Repressed, The Depressed, The Downpressed, We are Cowards.
Yet, if we Continue the Knowings, Walkings, and Ways of Russell Means, I know One Thing: Russell Means Liberation.
So, The Question is: What Are Your Roots? Nurture Them, it Is All We Are, Our Roots. Through These Ways, Liberation. All else, is continued incarceration.
International American Indian Movement 