The last part of this section (The #AIM Song of Anguish) of chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender is something that I can relate to. After my negative experience with an AIM member, I formed an alliance with #RobertaBlackgoat and #CorbinHarney -- and told their stories (as well as providing #MutualAid). And yeah, not all resistance groups are created equal!

"AIM has been extraordinarily gloried but they weren’t the only radical #Indigenous organizations operating then; communities with forces such as #JanetMcCloud fighting for fishing rights in so-called Washington, Corbin Harney resisting #NuclearColonialism in so-called Nevada, grandmothers #KatherineSmith, #PaulineWhitesinger, and Roberta Blackgoat fighting coal mining and forced relocation on #BlackMesa, and so many more have fought for decades to protect sacred lands and waters. Occasionally AIM would be there alongside those struggles and sometimes they would not be welcome. In spite of this, the AIM song still echoes and invokes the spirit of resistance in #Tulalip, #WesternShoshone, and #Diné frontlines, and far beyond."

Page 184, Klee Benally, No Spiritual Surrender

So, the next section takes to task the glorification of #AIM leaders like #DennisBanks and #RussellMeans, and some of the #ToxicMasculinity within the group's ranks. I experienced this first hand with a coven-mate (who was a member of AIM) -- he and I would butt heads about a lot of things, and he truly had the attitude that he was always right and that he should be running the show. It got old after a while and I eventually left the groups (both my coven and our political group, the #ThomasMortonAlliance). Ego and emotional / physical abuse used to be a part of a lot of groups -- even Winona LaDuke was caught up in an incident that happened under her watch involving an abuse of power and sexual coercion. So yeah, I agree 100% with Klee's assessment of some of AIM's leadership and the "cult of personality" around certain figures.

"As Billie Pierre stated in her defense of Graham and Looking Cloud, 'A basic principle of any resistance movement is
non-collaboration with our enemy.'

"The context of extreme State repression and consequential internal paranoia and divisions within movements and how it
impacts ongoing struggles today is necessary to study. AIM and their Indigenous feminist counterpart Women of All Red Nations, have lessons unlearned that should be studied, challenged, and confronted outside of settler colonial state narratives that continue to undermine and attack Indigenous resistance. There are also serious reasons many young Indigenous People are wary of AIM, from the toxic misogynistic legacy that has remained unaccounted for, to the imposition of force in frontlines where they have tended to overbear local organizers. Though they’ve maintained leadership with their 'Grand Council' over scattered semi-autonomous chapters, AIM’s contemporary presence has depended on its legacy. It’s largely an institution that dwells on its past achievements. Though those achievements may be great, this doesn’t provide much opening for reflection and necessary transformation to be relevant to young folks who have grown up in what we might consider a 'post-Red Power, post-AIM' world. As AIM has aspired to be 'a catalyst for Indian Sovereignty,' the terms have only grown muddied with the actions of their celebrities. From Russell Means abusing a Diné elder, then attempting to dodge accountability by attacking Navajo Nation tribal sovereignty, to the trails of women used and abused by him, Dennis Banks, and the other personalities that still comprise AIM’s celebrity forces.

"This anguishing resentment of AIM and their ongoing impositions, is part of what motivated a young Indigenous person
to cut down the AIM flag that was flying over a sacred fire at the Winnemucca Community Resistance Camp in so-called
Nevada in 2021."

Pages 183-184, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"Darlene “Kamook” Nichols who had been married to #DennisBanks, received $42,000 from the #FBI to spy on #AIM and help build the case against #ArloLookingCloud and #JohnGraham [in the murder of #AnnaMaeAquash]. Kamook subsequently married the US Marshal who re-opened the case.

"The voluntary state-collaboration of John Trudell against Graham and Looking Cloud also became a flashpoint. John
Graham’s extradition from so-called Canada would not have been possible without Trudell’s identification of him to the FBI.

"Though Looking Cloud confessed, he later recanted it stating that he was coerced with drugs given to him by State agents.

"In 2003 #LeonardPeltier issued this statement regarding the John Graham trial,

" 'When we talk of sovereignty, we must be willing to solve our own problems and not go running to the oppressor for relief…We have been and still are at odds with the most dangerous, well-funded, strongest military and political organization in the history of the world [the US government]. Whatever the result of any trials conducted in the courtrooms of our oppressor—the same ones’ ultimately responsible for Anna Mae’s death—we will continue to advance in our movement towards victory, inspired by her memory and her spirit.' "

Pages 182-1823, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaePictouAquash
#ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement
#AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #FBI #COINTELPRO

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"In the book #LakotaWoman, #MaryCrowDog and #RichardErdoes
shared this prophetic quote by #AnnaMaeAquash in 1975,

'[The FBI] offered me my freedom and money if I’d testify the way they wanted. I have those two choices now. I chose my kind of freedom, not their kind, even if I have to die. They let me go because they are sure I’ll lead them to Peltier. They’re watching me. I don’t hear them or see them, but I know they’re out there somewhere. I can feel it.' "

Page 181, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaePictouAquash
#ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement
#AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #MMIW #FBI #COINTELPRO

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

[More from Billie Pierre's 2006 article] "Pierre also addressed how #COINTELPRO operated at the time:

"'This tactic of the FBI’s Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) undermined valuable members of a group by casting them in suspicious situations. Wherever Pictou-Aquash went, arrests would follow. She’d be released, while other AIM members were slapped with charges and high bail. In September 1975, FBI Agent David Price attempted to force her to sign an affidavit implicating Peltier for the murder of the two FBI agents. She refused to cooperate, and Price promised her that she wouldn’t live to see the year’s end. They quickly arranged for her to be buried as a Jane Doe. After this cover-up came to light, the FBI released a statement announcing that Pictou-Aquash was not a government informant. As intended, this statement insinuated that AIM might have believed Pictou-Aquash to be an informant and murdered her.'"

Page 181, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

Link to PDF version of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender (TY @Fedi )

https://files.libcom.org/files/2024-10/no-spiritual-surrender_guts%20(1).pdf

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"In 2003, after multiple grand jury hearings, AIM members #JohnGraham and #ArloLookingCloud were targeted and controversially named as the killers of #AnnaMaeAquash. Others such as Thelma Rios and Vine Richard (Dick) Marshall were also charged in association with her murder.

"A 2006 article by Billie Pierre, who was part of Native American Youth Movement (NYM) and a founding member of the radical Indigenous youth project Redwire Magazine, addressed the charges against Looking Cloud and Graham:

"'In the past few years, the member of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash -- an American Indian Movement (AIM) leader from the Mi'kmaq Nation in Nova Scotia, Canada -- has been reduced to that of a helpless woman who was murdered by her own allies. In reality, her murder is part of a ruthless campaign waged by the US government -- a campaign that, far from being ancient history, is still unfolding today. There is no credible evidence linking either man to the crime, and their prosecution seems like nothing more than an attempt to destroy what little remains of AIM... Graham says that the FBI started to visit him in the Yukon during the mid-1990s. On four separate visits, they offered him immunity and a new identity if he testified that any of the other former AIM leaders had ordered Pictou-Aquash's execution. He refused. On their last visit, they stated that this would be his final chance to cooperate; if he would not testify, they would charge him with murder.'"

Page 180, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

[Thread] The next installment from #KleeBenally 's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender

“The devastation of #NuclearColonialism, which permanently destroys #Indigenous communities throughout the world, is outright ignored by some of the most devout #ClimateJustice advocates. They claim #NuclearEnergy production is also a #GreenSolution to the #ClimateCrisis. More than 15,000 abandoned #UraniumMines are located within the so-called US, mostly in and around Indigenous communities, permanently poisoning #SacredLands and waters with little to no action being taken to clean up their deadly toxic legacy. There are currently 93 operating #NuclearReactors in the so-called US that supply 20% of the country’s electricity. There are 60,000 tons of #HighlyRadioactive spent waste store in concrete dams at #NuclearPowerPlants throughout the country with the waste increasing at a rate of 2,000 tons per year.

“In 1987 the ‘US’ Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the US’s #ToxicWaste at #YuccaMountain located about 100 miles northwest of so-called #LasVegas, #Nevada. Yucca Mountan has been held holy to the #Paiute and #WesternShoshone Nations since time immemorial. In January 2010 the #ObamaAdminstration approved a $54 billion taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005. In April 2022, the #BidenAdministration government bailout to ‘rescue’ nuclear power plants at risk for closing. A #Colonial government representative stated, ‘US nuclear power contributes more than half of our #CarbonFree electricity, and President Biden is committed to keeping these plants active to reach our #CleanEnergy goals.’

“They, along with Climate Justice activiists, cite nuclear energy as necessary to combat #GlobalWarming, all while ignoring the devastating percent impacts #IndigenousPeoples have faced. There is nothing clean about energy produced from nuclear colonialism. From its weapons (including #DepletedUranium) to its #Mining and its waste; Indigenous bodies, lands, and waters continue to be sacrificed to heat water with radioactive materials which creates steam that moves generators to change batteries made from #Lithium extracted from other Indigenous sacred lands so #Teslas can mo you forward into a ‘just’ climate future.

“A green economy sustains and advances colonial progress, which means mitigated selective and ongoing destruction of #MotherEarth.”

Pages 139-140

#IndigenousAnarchy
#Ecosystem #HaulNo #DefendTheSacred
#CorporateColonialism #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent #WaterIsLife #ClimateDefenders #NoCopperMiningWithoutConsent #NoLithiumMining #CorporateColonialism #NoMiningWithoutConsent #LithiumMining #CopperMining #Greenwashng #NuclearWeapons #RestInPowerKleeBenally #RIPKleeBenally #StopCanyonMine

[Thread] The next installment from #KleeBenally 's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender.

“In a report released in 2021 by the Indigenous Environmental Network, they calculated that Indigenous resistance to twenty fossil fuel projects has ‘stopped or delayed’ carbon emissions equivalent to approximately 25% of ‘US’ and ‘Canada’s’ overall emissions. While non-profit climate activists who wrote the report reveal the power of #DirectAction, they also assign their campaigns more credit than is due. Particularly by citing significant losses such as #DAPL and #Line3 project in their reports, this statistic tends towards a deluded climate optimism that we view as a path fraught with peril and death. Again, if we’re not being honest with and about the failings of our movements, what does shifting tactics, and more importantly adjusting our overall strategies, toward the end of yet more changing statistics matter? we’re not convinced about making this a numbers game to celebrate the disrupting of 25% of an industry, when we’ve lost over 98% of the battle in a war with such high stakes. Particularly when those activist campaigns have spent hundreds of millions of dollars with thousands of our relatives jailed and dragged through racist court systems.”

Page 138

#IndigenousAnarchy
#Ecosystem #DefendTheSacred
#CorporateColonialism #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent #WaterIsLife #ClimateDefenders

[Thread] The next installment from #KleeBenally 's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender. This may feel like an attack to some, but read his words all the way through. He spoke truth!

"The ‘Green New Deal,’ like its parent ‘Green Economics’ are meant to sustain the US #settler colonial project and the #capitalist relations whose interest lay within the specificity of continuing the ongoing exploitation (destruction) of the whole of the Earth, while cashing in of course. In the case of the Green New Deal, which in many ways begat its own child, that of the Red New Deal, who aside from outright plagiarizing, fronting, and co-opting the long-term #Indigenous #ClimateJustice work, the Red Nation’s ‘Red New Deal,’ proposes an anti-capitalist and woefully limited anti-colonial response that not only reinforces #industrialization but ultimately leads to the ongoing participation in capitalism proper, just ‘renamed’ and ‘reformed’ under a ‘transitional’ Socialist Rubric, that leads to their Marxist organization’s propositions for a ‘#decolonized’ authoritarian worker-run state as the best solution. So while we’re collectively dying from the air we can’t breathe, the water we can’t drink, or both priced out of accessibility in the here and now, we are meant to await the building of yet another Socialist Utopia. A utopia belt upon the current dystopia of growing wastelands and climate disasters on every continent. From deadly #nuclear power to lithium and rare Earth mineral #mining, the the privatization of water, the greening of any economy is still a war against #MotherEarth and all existence."

Pages 137-138

#IndigenousAnarchy
#Ecosystem
#DefendTheSacred
#CorporateColonialism #Greenwashing #NoLithiumMining #WaterIsLife