The censoring of Rosalie Little Thunder

Tucson schools banned books: Just what was so provocative, so dangerous, about Rethinking Columbus?

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

TUCSON -- Still delirious from the relentless heat, I stumble into the university bookstore, in search of cold air. Then, I see them. Spread on a table near the front door, neatly arranged, are the banned books I've been searching for.

Picking up 500 Years Anos del Pueblo Chicano, 500 Years of Chicano History in pictures, I then see that my long search is over. I've finally found a copy of Rethinking Columbus, The Next 500 Years, among the first seven books banned by the Tucson Unified School District. The list of banned books was bloated into dozens of books when Mexican-American Studies was forbidden in January. The books in the classrooms were placed on the extricating cart and doomed for the depository.

So, just what was so naughty, so provocative, so dangerous, in Rethinking Columbus?


Rethinking Columbus is packed full of famous Native American authors.

The powerful Native American women's voices censored by Tucson public schools includes the voice of Rosalie Little Thunder, in, "The Sacred Buffalo." Little Thunder's letter describes the massacre of buffalo at Yellowstone National Park. It includes a personal family story of massacre and survival and her arrest at Yellowstone.

Above all, Little Thunder's letter describes the significance of the slaughter of buffalo. For the colonizers, the buffalo must die to eradicate Indians, just as in the minds of Tucson public school officials, the voices of Lakota survivors must be banned and silenced.

Little Thunder writes in Rethinking Columbus, "Just as I am a survivor of massacre, so too are the Yellowstone buffalo survivors of massacre."

Here, too, in Rethinking Columbus, is the powerful account of "Resistance at Oka," by Mohawk author Peter Blue Cloud Aroniawenrate. The censorship of Aroniawenrate by Tucson public schools was so powerful that the publisher of his book of poetry re-released it in response. Gary Lawless at Blackberry Books, re-released Back Then Tomorrow. http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/aroniawenrate-peter-blue-cloud_10.html

Meanwhile, the dramatic photos in the book of 500 Years of Chicano History, reveal plenty of photos to inspire. There are photos of farm workers being beaten bloody, and photos of the Southwest Organizing Project, fighting toxic dumping on Indian lands and elsewhere in the Southwest.

History, you see, is dangerous.

In 500 Years of Chicano History, there are also photos from southern New Mexico, where the wives of miners picked up the picket signs and manned the picket lines of the famous mining strike. The women faced brutality, while striking for running water and decent housing. Even their children were jailed.

Here, the past and present come together. When the movie about the mining strike, Salt of the Earth, was filmed in Silver City, N.M., in 1953, with the real life heroes of this strike, McCarthyism struck, and the filming went underground. In the next 10 years, only 12 theaters showed the film.


Wikipedia states about Salt of the Earth, "Director Herbert Biberman was one of the Hollywood screenwriters and directors who refused to answer the House Committee on Un-American Activities on questions of CPUSA affiliation in 1947. The Hollywood Ten were cited and convicted for contempt of Congress and jailed. Biberman was imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Institution at Texarkana for six months. After his release he directed this film.^[3] Other participants who made the film and were blacklisted by the Hollywood studios include: Paul Jarrico, Will Geer, Rosaura Revueltas, and Michael Wilson."

Today, those miners and the movie have survived the tentacles of McCarthyism. The attacks to banish Salt of the Earth only served to cement it as legend.

The banning of Rethinking Columbus, 500 Years of Chicano History, and all the other books banned by Tucson public schools, reserves their place in history. The voices of Rosalie Little Thunder, Lakota, Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk, and all the others, are now assured of standing the tests of time.

For permission to repost in full, contact brendanorrell@gmail.com, or feel free to share the link.

Also see:
Heatstroke: Scrounging for banned books in Tucson, with list of banned books and Censored News videos with Tucson students:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/07/heatstroke-scrounging-for-banned.html

Copyright Brenda Norrell

'Aroniawenrate Peter Blue Cloud' Sometimes the magic arrives in the mail

The Cry: Censoring Native authors By Brenda Norrell Censored Newshttp://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com Sometimes the magic arrives in the mail, as it did today. Inside a small brown envelope is a piece of paper and a book. There is a note written on a copy of an article, "Simon Ortiz: Shocked at banning of Native books in Arizona," which I had written. The note says, "This article was the initial impetus for publishing a new edition of Peter Blue Cloud's 'Back Then Tomorrow.' We originally published it in 1978. And here it is, speaking to us. We need to hear his voice, these voices." The note is signed, "Gary Lawless, Blackberry Books." In the little brown envelope from Maine, is a yellow book, with a drawing on the cover of Coyote Man with a walking stick. The book is Back Then Tomorrow by Peter Blue Cloud (Aroniawenrate) drawings by Bill Crosby. On the copy of the article, highlighted in yellow marker is the name of Peter Blue Cloud. Blue Cloud's name is in a quote by Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo poet, author and professor. "I am very stunned and very shocked and very pissed off the Tucson Unified School District would ban Mexican American Studies and books like Rethinking Columbus," Ortiz said in the article. Ortiz named the names of Indigenous authors, including Peter Blue Cloud, in the book Rethinking Columbus, now banned by Tucson public schools, following Arizona's demand to forbid Mexican American Studies. Opening the yellow book, I read the first poem of Peter Blue Cloud, "The Cry." The poem ends with: When I begin to create the universe, I must remember to give the cry a very special place. Perhaps I'll call the cry Coyote Peter Blue Cloud, Aroniawenrate: I am Turtle, passed to the Spirit World on April 27, 2011. "The Indian occupation of Alcatraz island was an attempt of Indian people to awaken the nation and show the world that the Indian spirit would live for ever." --Peter Blue Cloud Alcatraz When's the Last Boat to Alcatraz? Oche Iron Bear Dawn Crazy Horse Monument Yellowjacket Sweet Corn Sand hills That None May Visit Crow's Flight Searching for Eagles Old Friends Biography on Wikipedia: He was born on the Caughnawaga Reserve in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada and died in Montreal on April 27, 2011. He was previously associated with journal Akwesasne Notes and the journal Indian Magazine.[1] Blue Cloud was born in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory (Quebec), where he attended school and was raised in the Mohawk language. The family moved to Buffalo, NY, for awhile before returning to Kahnawake. He was a lifelong avid reader and began writing poems as a teenager. He became an ironworker in his teens, working in various cities in the East. In the late 1950's, he traveled to California, where he was employed as an ironworker in the Bay Area. After quitting the iron, he worked as a logger with the Haida people in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia, as a ranch hand in the vicinity of Susanville, California, and doing archaeological field work with the Paiute people of Pyramid Lake, Nevada. He lived for some time at the Maidu Bear Dance grounds near Janesville, Ca, where he absorbed the stories and teachings of Maidu elders, and where some of his first creations as a carver and sculptor emerged. Moving back to the Bay Area, he discovered the Beat poetry and folk music scenes, and the social and political upheaval of the 60's. There he continued to develop his talents as a poet, sculptor, carver and painter, collaborated with other Native artists and writers, and participated in art exhibitions. While an artist in many genres, Blue Cloud is most known for his writing. He published several books of poetry and his poems appear in numerous anthologies and journals. He won the American Book Award for Back Then Tomorrow in 1981. He was noted for combining Native American mythology with contemporary issues, most especially the character of Coyote, the trickster who figured prominently in his stories and poems. In the city or country, Blue Cloud loved to walk, was a keen observer of events both natural and political, and incorporated them into his writings. As it did for so many Native people, the occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971 sparked his interest in the fight for the rights of Native Americans. He lived on the island for awhile, and supported the occupation and similar events in California and the Northwest by chronicling them in various publications. Blue Cloud moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills near Nevada City for several years in the 1970's-'80's, where he continued to write, carve and paint, while also working as a carpenter. There he met guitarist Rex Richardson, and toured across the U.S. in 1979 with Richardson, who set his poems to music. Several recordings were released as a result of the collaboration. Blue Cloud returned to the East Coast to work for the national Native journal Akwesasne Notes (Mohawk territory, Akwesasne/NewYork) as a writer/editor first in 1975-76, and again from 1983-1985. He returned to Kahnawake in 1986, where he briefly published his own newspaper, the Kariwakoroks, before writing a column for The Eastern Door Newspaper from 1992 to 2006. Blue Cloud was cremated immediately after his death as per his wishes and his ashes will be spread in Modoc country in Northern California where the Modoc warriors fought and died. . Literary biography:

Peter Blue Cloud / Aroniawenrate was born in 1935 to the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk on the Caughnawaga Reserve in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. He has worked as ironworker, logger, carpenter and woodcutter and was previously associated with journal Akwesasne Notes and the journal Indian Magazine.

In the late 1960s he began publishing his poems. With these he emphasized and introduced the traditional ways of thinking into contemporary American literature, describing man in nature and history, man and nature as one, as it was always perceived by the aboriginal people.

In 1981, he has received the American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation. His books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry include "Alcatraz is not an island", 1972; "Back then tomorrow", 1978; "White corn sister", 1979; "Sketches in winter, with crows", 1984; "Elderberry flute song : contemporary coyote tales", 1989; " The other side of nowhere : contemporary coyote tales", 1990; "Clans of many nations : selected poems, 1969-1994", 1995.

Blue Cloud is noted for combining Native American myths with contemporary issues. He is especially noted for his use of the Coyote figure in his stories and poems.

'Back Then Tomorrow' can be ordered ($10 plus $2 mail) from Blackberry Books, 617 East Neck Road, Nobleboro, Maine 04555