Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

December 13, 2007

Remembering Floyd Westerman, the sound of resistance


Photos: Floyd Westerman sings the AIM song with Manny Pino, Tony Gonzales and Bill Means at the Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas 2006. Keith Secola and Westerman during concert at Indigenous Border Summit 2006. Westerman took flight to the Spirit World today, Dec. 13, 2007 at 5 a.m./Photo Brenda Norrell
Floyd Westerman, ever-present:
"And I told them not to dig for uranium, for if they did, the children would die. They didn't listen, they didn't listen, they didn't listen to me. And I told them if the children die, there would be no keepers of the land. They didn't listen. And I told them if they destroy the sky, machines would come and soon destroy the land. They didn't listen... And I told them if they destroy the land, man would have to move into the sea. They didn't listen... And I told them if they destroy the sea -- they didn't listen..." -From the Floyd Westerman song "They Didn't Listen" as Westerman recited the lyric concluding his testimony in 1992 at the World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg, Austria[1].
"There is an ancient Indian saying that something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it. My people have come to trust memory over history. Memory, like fire, is radiant and immutable while history serves only those who seek to control it, those who douse the flame of memory in order to put out the dangerous fire of truth. Beware these men for they are dangerous themselves and unwise. Their false history is written in the blood of those who might remember and of those who seek the truth." -Floyd Westerman as Albert Hosteen in The X-Files episode "The Blessing Way"
Floyd Westerman rememberd in South Dakota
KSFY TV video of memorial service:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

May You walk in balance into Spirit World. Friends from Poland.

LJansen said...

Thanks for standing up, Floyd. You'll be remembered.