Bellecourts Up to Old Tricks Trying to Snuff Out Tribunal Press Reports
by Joe Geschick
Native American Press/Ojibwe News
April 8, 1994
It is obvious that both Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt are
desperately trying to make people think the AIM Tribunal is a personal
attack or vendetta against them rather than a legitimate and necessary
action supported by indigenous people to excise two infected, pus-filled
boils from representing us publicly to the rest of the world.
In the Bellecourt statement printed in Native American Press
last week, we see Clyde and Vernon trying to snuff out the flames of
truth. Their statement exhibits some wishful thinking, much
exaggeration, and many outright falsehoods. For example (I was there)
Russ Means never said "my tribunal, my tribunal."
Other actions by Vernon and a friend also indicate extreme
desperation. Example: Carole Standing Elk and possibly Vernon
Bellecourt, at least by phone, spent most of Friday, March 25, trying to
get the president of Dominican College (in San Rafael, CA where the
event was held) to stop the AIM Tribunal. They got the president's
attention by telling him that they could bring forth documentation AIM
is a "terrorist organization".
This was a truly extraordinary performance, considering that
Vernon's trips to Libya and his acceptance of Libyan money are the main
reasons AIM is sometimes referred to as being a terrorist organization.
I don't know any "evidence" was actually prodeuced, but Carole was on
campus lobbying for the event's canncellation for quite awhile.
Another example; Immdiately after the Tribunal, Vernon called
Paul DeMain, publisher of News from Indian Country, trying to impugn the
reputation and integrity of a female reporter who is just a bit too
truthful and objective for the Bellecourts. Apparently a reporter has
to write the news exactly as the Bellecourts tell it before they will
accept him or her as being "objective and truthful". The Bellecourts
are scared to death of those whom they can't control. So Vernon told
Paul DeMain that the professional objectivity of the reporter was
"questionable", alluding that she was having an affair with a member of
the AIM Tribunal staff, which is a complete falsehood.
Such falsehoods are nothing new to Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt.
Remember how the Witness for Nonviolence group caught Clyde lying to a
reporter tha he had "trained 4,000 Witnesses for Nonviolence" when in
fact he had never been part of our training efforst. Or how about the
whopper he told a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter in 1991, that he had
"never hurt anyone in his life". Perhaps he forgot the nature of his
first criminal conviction and his long history of making death threats
against other Native Americans.
Vernon is no more innocent when it comes to death threats. For
instance, Vernon sat on his duff and didn't do or say anything - in fact
he smiled - when a fellow AIMer made a death threat against a Native
American college student who came to Minneapolis to make the AIM Patrol
a reality.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a Native American lady who called
me and said Clyde Bellecourt gave her 14 year old niece a marijuana
joint laced with angel dust, and that her niece "freaked out" on the
combination of drugs...This girl was a student at Clyde's Heart of the
Earth Survival School when he gave her the angel dust.
And now we have direct testimony during the AIM Tribunal showing
that Clyde gave an 8 year old boy marijuana on numerous occasions within
the past two years. The witness stated that both children involved -
herself when she was 17, and her 8 year old brother - were stone on
numerous occasions due to Clyde giving them marijuana. An 8 year old
boy! Can you imagine coming home and fining your 8 year old stoned on
marijuana given to him by Clyde Bellecourt during what he called
"informal AIM meetings"?
There was more testimony from this witness we observers didn't
hea because the judges shut the microphones off and were talking with
her very quietly. Regardless of what was said, child abuse comes in
many forms and I definitely consider giving drugs to children child
abuse. Many in the Minneapolis Native American community would like to
see Clyde Bellecourt gone from the community because of twenty-plus
years of this kind of behavior. For many of the same resons, AIM
chapters from across the country have also stated in no uncertain terms
that they do not want the Bellecourt brothers being in charge of or
leading all AIM chapters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mitakuye Oyasin, Waya Gola-JT Shupe. (shupe@rchland)
The above text contains my opinions, not IBM's. Unless otherwise stated.
External Responses to JT_WayaGola_Shupe@vnet.ibm.com
-- The Magics and Mysteries --| Dept. 45N : Performance Tools III
-- of the world are far simpler --| Associate Programmer, Professional
-- than we make them out to be. --| AISES member 507/253-4318 T/L553-4318