By Brenda Norrell
Article copyright Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS
The Civil Rights Movement and the American Indian Movement had this in common: They survived the attempts by the US government's COINTELPRO and other secret ops to eradicate them. They survived the attempts by the media to discredit them.
The US government and its media attempted to vanish these movements by focusing on the shortcomings of individuals in those movements.
But the movements surged forward, as a runaway train, not because of the train itself, or its conductor, but because of the sheer velocity, the sheer force, of the movement itself. It was the movement, the compelling movement forward on the side of right, the side of justice, that made each a force independent of who the conductor was, or whether there was a conductor at all.
When the Freedom Riders rode those buses into Mississippi, they faced death at the hands of white Mississippi police officers in the 1960s. Many Freedom Riders went to prison, forced onto prison chain gangs, others were beaten and murdered. Black and white, those youths rode the buses. Regardless of who was the catalyst, those youths were fearless in the face of death and imprisonment.
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AIM facing off with Lewis and Clark re-enactors
Photo Brenda Norrell |
The American Indian Movement faced the bullets of the US military at Wounded Knee. They stood their ground on the steps of the BIA building in Washington.
But their certitude was the same, whether the television cameras were rolling or not. On the banks of the Missouri River, the American Indian Movement faced off with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Here was the same impenetrable force that held Wounded Knee. When Carter Camp, Russell Means, Floyd Hand, Alex White Plume and Vic Camp exposed the root of genocide in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and told the re-enactors to leave Lakota Territory, it was with this force of movement. It was that same force of the absolute which corrected the bowels of the history books. Debra White Plume gave the Lewis and Clark re-enactors a symbolic blanket of smallpox.
For those who were ever in the presence of Lakota Chief Frank Fool's Crow, Hopi elders Thomas Banyacya and Dan Evehema, or Muskogee Creek Phillip Deere, there was no question of this absolute power of the invincible spirit. Being in their presence was transforming and emboldened the spirit.
On the Zapatista Caravan through Mexico, this impenetrable force of movement was literally like a runaway train. The Caravan rushed forward so fast that those of us in the buses seldom knew where we were going, or even what city we were in. Leading the caravan of buses rushing through Mexico, Subcomandante Marcos and the Comandantes rallied for justice, autonomy and dignity -- racing ahead of bullets yet to be fired at us.
When we came to Iguala, Guerrero, there was a spirit like non other, an indomitable force.
Here were the Freedom Fighters, here was Frank Fool's Crow, and here were the Zapatistas of Guerrero. They were the sheer force of unstoppable movement, and there was no doubt the people here were that run away train. They were the velocity itself.
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Photos of 43 disappeared students held
by Zapatistas in 2014. |
The Zapatistas of Guerrero, with the blood of the Nahuatl charging through their veins, were each a fortress. Resolute, they were peerless.
Perhaps this is why the police and military disappeared and murdered the students of Guerrero in 2014. They recognized that this spirit of the absolute could never be dissipated, could never be conquered.
But they were wrong. The students were not silenced.
Do you hear them -- do you hear them now?
Brenda Norrell has been a journalist in Indian country for 32 years. She began at Navajo Times, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a freelance writer for AP and USA Today. After being censored repeatedly, then terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today, she began Censored News. She has traveled with the Zapatistas and reported from the Southern border and throughout the west. Censored News is now in its 9th year, with no advertising, grants or sponsors, and 3.7 million pageviews from around the world.
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* DE SNELHEID VAN BEWEGING: BURGERRECHTENBEWEGING, AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT EN DE ZAPATISTAS.
De Burgerrechten beweging en de American Indian Movement hebben dit alvast gemeen: zij overleefden de pogingen van COINTELPRO en andere geheime operaties van de VS regering om hen uit te roeien. Zij overleefden de pogingen van de media om hen in diskrediet te brengen.
De VS regering en zijn media probeerden deze bewegingen in de grond te boren door de focus te richten op tekortkomingen van enkele personen in die bewegingen.
Maar de golf van bewegingen blijft doorgaan, zoals een op hol geslagen trein, niet door de trein zelf, of zijn bestuurder, maar door de grote snelheid, de grote kracht van de bewegingsgolf zelf.
Het was de beweging, de dwingende beweging voorwaarts aan de kant van recht, de kant van rechtvaardigheid. Dat maakte van hen een macht, ongeacht wie de leider was, en zelfs zonder leider.
Toen in 1960’s de Freedom Riders hun bussen in Mississippi rondreden wisten ze dat zij gedood konden worden door de blanke Mississippi politie. Veel Freedom Riders werden in de gevangenissen opgesloten, zij werden aan handen en voeten geketend naar de gevangenis gebracht
Anderen werden afgeranseld en vermoord. Zwart en wit, deze jongeren reden de bussen zonder acht te slaan op wie de katalysator was, deze jongeren waren zonder vrees in het aangezicht van de dood en gevangenisstraffen.
De American Indian Movement kreeg de kogels van het US leger te verduren bij de bezetting van Wounded Knee.
Zij hielden stand op de trappen van de BIA gebouw in Washington.
Maar hun zekerheden bleven hetzelfde, of de televisie camera’s er waren of niet.
Op de oevers van de Missouri rivier confronteerde de American Indian Movement de re- enactors van de Lewis and Clark expeditie. Hier was dezelfde ondoordringbare kracht van Wounded Knee voelbaar.
Wanneer Carter Camp, Russell Means,Floyd Hand, Alex White Plume en Vic Camp duidelijk maakten dat de wortels van de genocide in de Lewis en Clark Expeditie lagen, en de re-enactors dringend verzochten om het Lakota territorium te verlaten, was het met de kracht van de beweging. Het was diezelfde kracht van het absolute die de leugens van de geschiedenisboeken onderuithaalden.
Debra White Plume overhandigde de Lewis en Clark re- enactors een symbolische -met pokken besmette deken.
Voor hen die ooit in het gezelschap hebben vertoefd van Lakota Chief Frank Fool’s Crow, Hopi elders Thomas Banyacya en Dan Evehema, of Muskogee Creek Philip Deere, was er geen twijfel over deze absolute kracht van de onzichtbare geest. In hun aanwezigheid te zijn transformeerde en moedigde de geest aan.
In de Zapatista karavaan die door Mexico reed was deze ondoordringbare kracht van beweging letterlijk te vergelijken met een losgeslagen trein. De karavaan snelde haastig voorwaarts, zo snel dat diegene onder ons die in de bus zaten niet wisten waar we naartoe reden of in welke stad we waren.
Subcomandante Marcos en de Comandantes die de karavaan leidden vlogen als het ware door Mexico om het volk te organiseren voor rechtvaardigheid, autonomie en waardigheid -om de kogels voor te blijven die men ons navuurden.
Toen wij in Iguala, Guerrero aankwamen was de geest, een onverzettelijke kracht voelbaar zoals we nog nooit gevoeld hadden.
“Hier waren de Freedom Fighters, hier was Frank Fool’s Crow, en hier waren de Zapatistas van Guerrero.
Zij waren de formidabele kracht van een onstuitbare beweging.”
De Zapatistas van Guerrero, met het bloed van de Nahuatl in hun aderen, vormden, ieder voor zich een fort.
Resoluut, onverstoorbaar.
Misschien is het daarom dat de politie en het leger in 2014 de studenten heeft doen verdwijnen en vermoord. Zij voelden dat deze geest van het absolute nooit zal verdwijnen, nooit overwonnen zal worden.
Maar de studenten zijn het zwijgen niet opgelegd. De studenten zijn niet monddood gemaakt.
Kan je hen horen – hoor je hen nu?
Brenda Norrell has been a journalist in Indian country for 32 years. She began at Navajo Times, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a freelance writer for AP and USA Today. After being censored repeatedly, then terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today, she began Censored News. She has traveled with the Zapatistas and reported from the Southern border and throughout the west. Censored News is now in its 9th year, with no advertising, grants or sponsors, and 3.7 million pageviews from around the world.
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Nota van NAIS: Op 5 februari stelt NAIS de documentaire COINTELPRO 101 voor in Antwerpen.
Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Content may not be used without permission.
