THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2007
A Great Chief Passes On
WaBun inini Hands His Pipe to the Rest of Us: A Great Chief Passes OnTom Baker here, friends, and Saturday October 13, a great leader began his long last journey. He would say, My Christian missionary name is Vernon Bellecourt but I am WaBun inini.
WaBun inini had an extraordinary life establishing the First Nation People as their own entity, with international status at the United Nations and international presence among the other indigenous of the earth. This profound person responding to the profound moment of his life, from Wounded Knee onward, gave his people face and presence with national leaders around the world.
When we hosted WaBun inini at the 2003 Nicaragua Network National Leadership Meeting, he had just been talking with Fidel Castro in Havana. On the weekend of his going to his next world, he'd just been with Hugo Chavez in Caracas.
WaBun inini visited Nicaragua a number of times and helped facilitate delegations of other First Nation People to the Caribbean indigenous of Nicaragua.
He has been and will remain a mentor to Nicaragua Network
Before proceeding, however, let it be clear that WaBun inini could not have done what he did without others, his People, and his People's Experience, their History, their history rudely, relentlessly and to this day trampled upon by the White Man. Other peoples of the world share in this history, and that knowledge is among the indigenous of the North as it is among all.
I would say that WaBun inini is an icon for the indigenous rising up going on now. And at no time was he alone, at no time was he out of context with the struggle of all people against Imperialism. At no time was he outside his people.
I was privileged to share the funeral time with the people, from Minneapolis to the White Earth reservation just east of Fargo. Take a moment, please, and think about this people's history, the First Nation People. Respect the fact that the Bureau of Indian Affairs could give a damn and that the indigenous confined under state control are somebody's cash cow. The insult to these people by this government continues.
Who remembers Wounded Knee and Who is Leonard Peltier?
One way to name the insult of the state against the People is to call it Dumbing Down. Dumbing Down results in the interests being served by the state not being those of compassionate Reason and Community but those of Power. And Power is in the business of exploitation.
WaBun inini knows this, the people know this. We all know this. And we know that the road to liberation is difficult. But it is the road we choose and it must be followed.
WaBun inini's legacy is one of shining the light, of continuing to be a mentor to us all with the teachings of his people.
Chief Seattle: The dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.
To Vernon WaBun-inini
By Roberto Vargas
I hear the distant lullaby of a familiar brook
Its vital arteries nourishing
PACHA MAMA/MOTHER EARTH
As she awaits our long anticipated return
From the four directions of our history
Hermano Vernon (WaBun-Inini)
With the seed of chiefs ke-che-waish-ke, Osh-kosh, and O-sha-ga
The valor of Geronimo, Nicarao, y Cochise
the eternal wisdom of Tecumseh and Wabokieshiek
As you defended the spirituality and existence
of our First nations
Now you return to our internal mountains
Where eagles, pine trees, fish, fresh air and love
are our daily medicine
not the pill in the hand of Euro-developers
gone the ghosts of the Dawes and Nelson Acts
Gone the horrors of massacres and removals
Gone the subtlety of Euro-centered wampum deception
The Wars gone . taxations . reservations . identity mutilations
GONE NOW!!
Hermano WaBun-Inini
PACHA MAMA is ours is the promised land
From Alaska to the Patagonias
The buffalo of time is plentiful
We are the future As written on the walls
Of our hearts our grandfathers
our praxis the nintotems to teach our youth
teach our history NOW!!
Rest in peace o WaBun-Inini
With Kitchi-Manitou
WITH ALL OUR
ANTEPASADOS
AMEN
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