it's time to return to my ranty roots

[likeawoman]

as I'm sure many of you are aware, South Dakota banned abortion (pretty much wholesale) this March. Just to be clear, this law would not go into effect until July according to the legislation, but because it is being brought forth as a ballot initiative it will not be brought into effect unless it is affirmed by voters. even then, planned parenthood will inevitably challenge it on the grounds of it being totally unconstitutional (as outlined in Roe v. Wade and PP v. Casey, etc) and an injucntion will prevent it from going into effect until the matter has been resolved in federal court (potentially the SCotUS). the point being, abortion is still legal in South Dakota (just an fyi before we get to the issue I actually want to discuss).

so in the wake of the media insanity that this ill advised legislation brought about, Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Pine Ridge Reservation made the following statement:

“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

the statement did a lot of things. first, it drew a great deal of attention to the Oglala tribe and Pine Ridge. second, it sparked a large number of unsolicited donations from reproductive rights activists, from the US and internationally. third, it got Fire Thunder in a whole lot of trouble.

Fire Thunder had been unseated from her position in 05 over a variety of charges. these charged were later dismissed and she was reinstated. everything I've read on this situation in the (very limited, online) Native press suggests that it was political maneuvering.  I've gotten the impression thatFire Thunder is a very controversial leader with a strong will and a great deal of dissatisfaction for the running of Pine Ridge before her appointment.  I am ill-equipped to get into the deep, complex and still tense issues of Pine Ridge, but it is one of the most impoverished areas in the country, home to a great deal of violence toward tribe members (both on the part of our government and pro-government/pro-white -- for lack of a better term-- forces on the reservation) and was the site of the hotly contested events which led to Leonard Peltier's (wrongful, in my estimation) imprisonment. Pine Ridge has a lot of problems and the tribal council is not always unified on those problems. Fire Thunder has gained a great deal of press for, among other things, looking to reaffirm the dignity of a people undercut by government, marginalization, racism and betrayal withing the tribe. tribal politics are extremely complex in many places, and Pine Ridge was probably best known for their controversies up until this march.  (anyone who can flesh out Pine Ridge's politics is welcome to help me out -- obviously my understanding is piecemeal at best).

so, in response to the unsolicited donations and Fire Thunder's controversial statement, she was suspended again. I am less clear on whether this is an effort of the same detractors she has always had or a serious issue of misrepresenting her constituents. There has been some outcry regarding feelings that abortion is outside the traditional  values of the tribe. Some members of the council that supported her in the first challenge to her presidency are apparently not with her on this issue. Pamphlets have been circulated referring to her as "Cecilia Babykiller" a play on the name of Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee nation. needless to say, it's a complicated issue. The council also voted to ban abortion on the reservation. It is unclear if abortions could be performed under the protection of sovereignty in the event the South Dakota ban was upheld. It is also unclear how the Pine Ridge ban might be challenged, also due to the complexities of sovereignty.

but none of this is the point, exactly. the point is this

when Fire Thunder made her statement, she was flooded with donations. pro-choicers started throwing money at her immediately, in spite of her never having publicly solicited any funds. advocates with little to no understanding of tribal sovereignty, tribal politics or Pine Ridge rallied on every single feminist and choice community I am on (and countless other venues) posting Fire Thunder's contact information and encouraging support. whether or not they intended to, they fueled the fire that put Fire Thunder in the position of impeachment.

but it doesn't end there.

since news of Fire Thunder's suspension has spread, the communities are ablaze again. advocates are decrying the tribal council and demanding answers as to where their money will go. money they sent off to strangers unsolicited. money they apparently foolishly assumed they could earmark. and you know, if it was just griping, maybe I could let their foolishness go.

but it doesn't end there either.

today, this post appeared on ljforchoice. (please don't comment if you're not a member) as I'm sure you can see from my comment, I'm pretty frustrated with the whole thing. in case something has changed and you can't see my comments, here they are:

I'm not trying to be mean here, but what exactly is this intended for? you're going to call up the tribal council of a sovereign native american nation and say "hey guys, I know I'm not Oglala Sioux or a member of any nation and this decision has nothing to do with me and I don't know anything about the politics of your reservation, but I think it's shitty that you banned abortion."

has it occurred to anyone that a bunch of nosey, non-native pro-choicers calling and sending mail to shame the council may very well solidify their stance? pine ridge's politics are extremely complicated and the interviews I've read with tribal council members point directly to the fact that some members feel that Fire Thunder's move to provide abortions on the reservation (though she says now that she never meant they'd build an abortion clinic) was out of step with their traditional values.

has it ever occurred to anyone that getting involved in native politics on a reservation you know little about and sending unsolicited donations and interfering in all this might be doing more harm than good?

and

p.s. I'd love to hear how many of the non-natives looking to fight this matter had any idea that Pine Ridge existed before this all happened. it's one of the most famous reservations in the country and still virtually no non-natives no anything about it. frankly it comes off as more than a bit patronizing, the way there's suddenly all this concern for one of the single most impoverished areas in the country, an area that just happened to be the sight of some appalling crimes against native people only a few decades ago, over abortion. is anyone else given pause by this extremely selective concern for the Oglala Sioux?

which I feel sufficiently sums up my frustration with this. it's all just a bit too "white man's burden" for me to stomach. who the hell are these pro-choicers (most of whom I assume from past posts and comments know little to nothing about Pine Ridge) to contact the tribal council and attack their decisions? why are we entitled to interfere in the politics of a tribe already repeatedly assailed by white interference in awful ways, in order to further our own interests? am I completely off base for thinking "couldn't you all just mind your own fucking backyards?"

I'm just so frustrated with the attitude of entitlement that this whole thing smacks of. not to mention, as I pointed out in my comment, few (if any) of these people gave two shits for Pine Ridge, in spite of serious problems put upon its occupants for the past... oh... forever, until they made abortion related headlines.

I dunno, it's just kind of burning my ass. maybe I'm wrong. what do you all think? (I'd especially love to hear from comrades I know are active in anti-racism activism, as well as my pro-choice comrades who were a bit boggled by the unsolicited craziness that started all of this)

Comments

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're wrong--but I certainly understand the whole kerfuffle. One wonders if those donating who didn't know anything about Pine Ridge would also be willing to donate to Pine Ridge for other needs, such as shoes and pencils. Or would be willing to donate to struggling clinics outside of South Dakota.

Of course, the whole issue of donating gives the uneasies, because it makes me think too much of missionaries.

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

yeah, I think the whole issue of a sort of "white man's burden" missionary-ish appraoch to the whole thing is a lot of what I'm having trouble with. like there's not discerment between offering help when it's solicited and sort of swooping in to "help" univited.

welcome aboard, by the way.

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

that part of the midwest is really saturated with tribal gaming already, so they'd probably have a tough go of making a successful casino. there are certainly no shortage of good ways to use the money though.

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

now that would be precious

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

I don't.

But if they could spend it on basic health necessities at the clinics they do have, ok.

The abortion issue is something I work very closely with on a day to day basis, so this is something that lies right next to my heart. I understand Fire Thunder's blow-up, and I understand what spurred all of those ill-conceived (if you'll forgive the pun) donations. I'm sad that the council chose to respond in the way they did. There are so many factors at work in this mess.

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

puckish and I both have tight affiliations with Planned Parenthood and are active in choice politics and advocacy (specifically at the student organizing level). I think she was being sort of half facetious, in response to the idea that a bunch of people sent unsolicited donations and now, in retrospect, and upset that you really can't go around earmarking unsolicited funds.

mmmmm irony

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

being an English major will have that kind of affect on a girl







wait... you are an English major, aren't you? I may be experiencing a brain bleed in the countdown to graduation

Re: mmmmm irony

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

It's good for your blood.

I have a sense of humor about almost everything, but sometimes I get overly grim about the choice issue. Sorry for not quite catching & playing along with the facetiousness.

Re: mmmmm irony

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

you are quite a Renassaince woman

[heathenslutnun.livejournal.com]

I knew about the whole Oglala Souix and Pine Ridge before the whole clusterfuck that is now happening. I think that people calling up the tribe like they are old friends and telling them their business is rude and a bit like carving a giant women's symbol in the Black Hills right next to Mount Rushmore. What they do is their business. Giving them donations without them being in any way solicited and they should use the funds and they see fit. You can't just ask for them back, that's ridiculous. I think people should focus on getting their own ducks in a row and not tell other people how to manage theirs.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

My knowledge of tribes is limited to my work (there is a great deal of gov grants specifically for tribes) and honestly my limited reading has pretty much confined me to say 'I'm white, and I live in a suburban white area and I need to shut my mouth and let the indigenous people speak'

[chucknoblet.livejournal.com]

swooping in to "help" univited

Exactly.

One of my aunts had the good fortune to fall into some good fortune. They bought a factory under a serious sweetheart deal, big customers already lined up, etc. Last Thanksgiving, my Aunt was going on and on about how one of her employees (Carlos or something) had a big family and couldn't really afford Christmas, and how she was going to buy the whole family Christmas presents.

Do you see where I'm going with that? Yeah. I wanted to yell "MAYBE IF YOU ARE HIS EMPLOYER AND YOU ARE SO FUCKING CONCERNED THAT HE CAN'T AFFORD CHRISTMAS MAYBE YOU SHOULD GIVE HIM A FUCKING RAISE???? EH???? HOLIDAY BONUS???? HMM????"

But I got myself under control. It took me a few months to really recover from that though, to remind myself how much I love her.

So yeah. I don't know any more about this fiasco than you've written, but I can identify with seeing things that way, and the rage that it brings.

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

ahaha. when I was a kid a truss factory down the road from me had a nasty fire. it was arson but they didn't know exactly what happened. apparently, for christmas, instead of cash bonuses, as the workers had received for decades, everyone got a turkey for their family christmas dinner. I guess all those silly proles would've prefered money.

if Carlos was anything like my poor assed blue collar family, all those charity gifts probably would've ended up with toys for tots or the salvation army or a shelter. there's nothing like the patronizing hand of great white charity.

[amoreno.livejournal.com]

There's not a lot that I can say that hasn't already been said. I must say that I am very thankful that there are white people like you out there who fucking GET IT. Trust me, they're hard to come by.

I think that the only meaningful thing that I can add here is the following to words: accountability and solidarity.

The native peoples, and almost all people of color communities within these imaginary borders of a settler state called the "united states" are constantly at war, constantly resisting colonialism and imperialism. White folks can play a crucial role in this fight be keeping these two words in mind.

If white pro-choicers are concerned that abortion will not be available on the rez, then they'd better damn well have some sort of established relationship with that community that is based on SOLIDARITY...in other words, fighting WITH them against imperialism, not FOR them, and a relationship that is based on ACCOUNTABILITY...in other words, that those white pro choicers are accountable to, say, the native women on that rez. It's about TAKING direction from oppressed peoples, not GIVING it.

Also, as a side not that is somewhat related, check out anything that either Ward Churchill or Eduardo Galeano have written about birth control and people of color communities. It's by no means a simple, dualistic issue for us or for our communities. For years well meaning liberals have told us that the way to help us "out of poverty " was to "have abortions and access to birth control." In other words, it's as if the white liberal response was not, "hey, we're going ot fight with you against this horrible system which produces drastic inequalities and therefore inhibits you from having healthy children" but rather "you probably just shouldn't have them cuz your dirty, poor, and brown."

yeah, we want birth control, the womyn in our communities DO want to control their bodies, but our community also wants to be ABLE TO HAVE healthy children with access to resources!

galeano and churchill say it better than i do. but yeah.

thanks for the good post!

[likeawoman.livejournal.com]

yeah, the issues between the family planning movement and people of color is something I was aware of, but didn't think of in connection with this specific matter. it's something that a lot of pro-choicers put on deliberate blinders in regards to. instead of addressing head on the undercurrents of eugenics and privilege issues and the privatizing of social issues, they just pretend like its not problematic. its very frustrating, but its like one grain in a whole dune of frustrating ignorance in the feminist movement. after reading The Feminine Mystique, I could use some Churchill and hooks and progressive writers who are concerned with more than the emancipation of middle class white women. I find myself more frustrated every day with "liberals" who can't think beyond their own circumstance or be bothered to address the clear intersections in matters of oppression. but I'm preaching to the choir here... hehe. I just wish more liberals would give up their self satisfaction and triumphalism long enough to actually do some good without trampling the people they're trying to "save"

[taylerann.livejournal.com]

im not from the states so i don't quite know exactly whats going on..
but women should have choices.