Mass AIM and New England Statistics

8/11/02

Recently I was asked regarding how to best address a series of new New Age sweat lodges in New Hampshire, the caller noted he said he sure missed Mass AIM, then he told me Northeast AIM is no Mass AIM.  I am sick and tired of hearing this comment.  If there is work that needs to be done, it should be identified, then work set to see a just result, this will not be accomplished with boycotts that are going to result in lawsuits that can not be defended.  I will note while I am disappointed with much, the area of prison work is in capable hands, this is a tremendous area of need and we are fortunate the needs in this area remain in good hands.

I could not care less about Hooker, or his little village, and neither does CNO the EB or any other Cherokee entity and I am highly offended when anyone wants to address traditional issues as related to Cherokee (a similar issue was raised by a number of Oneida).  let me be very blunt, there is a tendency for folks to try to make up for their lack of upbringing in later years by reading books.  I am not the least bit impressed by anyone who has learned Cherokee tradition in a book, and I am not the least bit impressed with Pan-Indiansim as some desire because as Cherokee we hold a core belief that Cherokee are ani yun wiya, the Principal People, in our traditions we are told we were often conquerors, never conquered, often combine, but never combined, often merge, never merged, as such that which is Cherokee is only for those who are Cherokee, if there are complaints from Cherokee who know our traditions, about Hooker and his little village they should be given in original form to Jani and Sky.  If they desire he is addressed, I am in a better position to take action, and whatever Jani decides I will do.  While I am ambivalent about Hooker and his village, I am not the least little bit fond of Hooker's associates, but the effort spent promoting the boycott does not address these clowns.  In fact it does not effect them in the least little bit, as such the boycott is action against Hooker, and only Hooker and he and his village are insignificant in light of the real work that needs to be done, that is not being done.

When you took the helm of the new organization Jani was sick (probably our fault), I had just had a second stroke.  At that time, in the prior 18 months Mass AIM closed Indian Camp, the first and only Boy Scout Camp ever closed in the international history of the Boy Scouts because it was offensive to Indians.  Frontier School District dropped their mascot, four groups in Connecticut came to an agreement to not allow mascots with names or images using, in any degree, form or fashion anything related to Indians, this stopped over 30 native based names from entering youth hockey, soccer and baseball leagues.  Similar work was accomplished in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and New York.

In Maine we addressed three individual work related NDN discrimination issues, all settled in our favor, in New Hampshire we closed five white ran sweat lodges, Maine we closed a white owned Vision Quest lodge and a white owned sweat lodge, we stopped a New Hampshire cooperative from marketing items as Indian in violation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, and nine flea markets agreed to require a specific vendor or vendors within their enterprise to either stop marketing bogus Indian items or face rejection (all nine complied) and more.

There are 102 elementary and secondary schools in New England using native based mascots, and more than 1100 native based mascots used or renewed each year in New England youth sports leagues operated in part or in whole with public monies.  How many of these have been addressed by the Northeast AIM?  1.  A total of 1 and according to locals that effort is either at a stand still, or has been dropped.  There is a second mascot matter being worked, but this is attributed to Jani and is not counted with Northeast AIM.  This leaves more than 1200 native based mascot matters yet to be addressed, but native based mascot matters are only the tip of the iceberg.

There are a multitude of NDN housing issues, I still handle some of these, but these are issues AIM should resolve in mass. 

In Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, it is estimated there are over 25,000 NDN families with significant housing issues, more than 10% of all homeless families in New England are Indian.  (New England Social Issues, 2001)

Health care is routinely denied or underprovided for more than 3/4 of all Indians in New England.

2 of 3 Indians in New England face work related discrimination on a daily basis, more than 1/3 describe the actions as significant, more than 1/2 indicate hostile work environments caused them to leave a prior employer.

Indians are stopped and/or arrested more than any other minority in New England other than African-Americans, in Vermont and Maine Indians are the largest minority stopped or arrested.

Indians are more likely to be stopped and checked by fish and wildlife agents than all other identifiable groups of peoples.

More than 3/4 of all items sold as Indian made in New England fail the standards within Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.

The Sacred Site List is a quarterly activist list distributed at various colleges and community groups with lists of Sacred site and Burial site desecrations.  The Sacred Site List ranked New England as the leading problem region in both classifications.

The 2001 Minority Sentencing Project newsletter, Cambridge, Massachusetts, noted significant discriminatory trends in sentencing and other treatment of Indians as compared to all other ethnic and racial classifications. 

Overall unemployment among Indians in New England is two times that of other identifiable ethnic and racial classifications.  Outside urban areas, unemployment among Indians is four times that of all other identifiable classifications.

Indians drop out of high school and college for financial reasons at a rate unparalleled by any identifiable group since the depression of the 1930's.

More Indian high school students hold jobs to help with family finances than the next nearest identifiable ethnic and racial classifications combined (Indians behind, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese).

There are fewer Indian TV and radio personalities in New England, per capita (based on number of Indians, and overall population), than any other region in the United States.

Less than 1% of all government bids (based on dollar value) in New England are awarded to Indians.

I could go on, and on and on...

The above considered, someone explain the significance of the boycott of The Cherokee Village of New England, and other boycotts in light of the overall lack of action regarding the above areas of significant need?

I am sure you are offended, and while that is not my intent, I can not offer an apology.  I realize I am not nice about how I view our problem areas, but I rank everything according to significance and long term effect, as such I am both goal and results oriented.  I do not want to hear about what is going to be done, I want to see what is being done, and the results.  I have always put my time where my mouth as such I have no use for anything that is not productive, this includes red berets, posts on NDN-AIM, or boycotts of meaningless events or entities when such has no lasting effect on Indian rights.  If an activity does not lead to the resolution of an identified issue it is meaningless, as such calling for anything other than action on real issues is without excuse.

Charles Yow