this is in response to the many people who have e-mailed their moral and
spiritual support to my husband, bernard, for speaking up and out about the
traditional ways of our people and the reality of our people today. i
thank you all.
my husband was born and raised in ponsford, minnesota on the white
earth reservation. he is the grandson of wolf rock and a direct descendent
of chief may-dway-aush, who the whitemen called flatmouth. he lived for a
period of time with his maternal great-grandfather ahn-da-bi-tung in
bravik, minnesota.
he was educated in the catholic mission school in ponsford where he
was punished many times for speaking his first language, ojibwe. he and
his first wife, geraldine stone, did not teach their children to speak
ojibwe, because they did not want them to suffer in the school as they had.
my husband is a combat veteran who served two tours of duty in
korea. during those two tours he was wounded 5 times in hand-to-hand
combat and by mortar fire. he and pete spotted wolf of the sioux nation
were m.i.a. (missing in action) surrounded by enemy soldiers they hid in
a cave for two weeks where they both froze their feet.
in november of 1951, on the day after thanksgiving, a mortar
exploded over the bunker he was sleeping in, causing the tons of rock and
dirt over him to cave in, crushing his face. after being in a coma for
monthes he had to be taught to talk again, in english.
he served his country proudly and although, he was discharged
with a disability rating due to his combat wounds, he was not awarded
purple heart citations from the united states government until 35 years
later. he has never received credit from the u.s. government for single
handedly capturing an enemy platoon. he was evacuated after getting the
end of his thumb shot off, taking a rifle away from an enemy soldier in
hand-to-hand combat. the powers that be assumed that when comrades stated
that 'rock captured the platoon,' they were referring to a south korean
soldier who were called 'r.o.k.' this is the same reason that the purple
heart citations came 35 years late.
my husband suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from his
combat experiences. he is haunted by the spirits of the warriors: the
north koreans that he killed in combat and the comrades who died fighting
beside him in the battlefields. for many years he drank alcohol to keep the
nightmares away. when he quit drinking over ten years ago, the nightmares
returned. in 1991 he graduated from the first all native american p.t.s.d.
treatment program at american lake vets hospital in tacoma, washington.
three years ago he completed veterans service officer training. he does
outreach and advocacy for native american veterans suffering from war
traumas, helping them and their families understand p.t.s.d. and to apply
for the benefits and assistance that they are entitled to. he does not
receive any pay to do this, this is how he honors the memory of the
warriors who did not return from the battlefields.
bernard is enrolled on his mother's side in the leech lake pillager
band. when we moved to the leech lake reservation four years ago, we were
viewed as outsiders by many of the people who were raised here all their
lives. this is one of the most damaging of the legacies of the american
holocaust and the politics of u.s. federal indian policy, the divisions and
separations between our own peoples.
between us, bernard and i have 33 grandchildren and 4
great-grandchildren; and although the domineering culture tries to define
and catagorize our family, we are family. we are not blended; there are no
half children (all our children are whole); and we never 'step' on or over
any of our children... we are family. geraldine stone rock has passed on
to the spirit world and i am the only gramma rock many of these children
will know. as grandparents we watch over the 'education' of the
children... our grandchildren, our nieces and nephews, all the children in
our community... because that _is_ our job.
our family has been through much for many generations. we cannot
go back and change the hurts of the past, but through our grandchildren we
can heal by making life better for them. we believe that better life can
be secured by honoring the struggle and the strength of our ancestors and
returning to their traditional values and priorties.
our ancestors were resourceful and creative peoples. they made the
most of what was available to them. they adapted to their environments in
a way that was good for the people and respectful to the gifts of the
creator. this is how we view cyberspace and we chuckle at the mysterious
coincidence that this tool of communication is available through an
invisible entity called a world wide web.
it is not our intention to offend anyone and we apologize to those
who take offense at any of our words. and to you non-native people who
truly are empathetic and concerned about our people, we need to say, that
sometimes the best support that you can give us is to stand back quietly
and let our voice be heard.
i thank you for listening to this gramma.
feather eaglerock, leech lake rez
english is a foreign language. reclaim the language of your people and
send it to the future as your gift to your grandchildren's grandchildren.
di-ka-ne'-tsv a'-qua-tse'-li ha-htv-gi, wa-do' do-da-da-go'-hv