Illahee Spirit Runners journey to whats commonly known as Portland for Indigenous led Womens’s march followed by Wetsuweten Solidarity Rally. When we arrived we seen the Native American center where Medz Hawk played in 2014 and the PSU building where i taught a workshop at Resistance Ecology. As i started to orient myself as “Portland” is always too urban for me i find it over whelming being raised between a valley with what used to be a little college town and a rainforest in the foothills of the coastal mountain range i seen the courtyard. The courtyard had speakers and canopies set up. People moving about and more coming. A few speakers took turns. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/People was talked about at length. I am always pleased to see revolutionary concepts reaching mainstream and the youth. Things we fought for are becoming reallity in the revolutionary culture. Like the concept of indigenous led marches. That was a huge focus of Illahee Spirit Runners. It had great pushback from the movement. It took several years of confrontation, education and negotiation to arrive at where we are today where indigenous people are leading marches on our own land and not in a tokenizing way but to at least start the road to the mainstream left following indigenous leadership. To improve from here is to bolster and cultivate anti colonialism. In the future indigenous youth will be in a world where they wont have to fight for that because we laid the groundwork. American Indian Movement and others laying the groundwork of getting the American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed and having patrols to protect indigenous women as early as the 1980’s in Minneapolis. March went great. I marched behind a Klamath Yahooskin Idle No More PDX leader i know to support our Idle No More crossover with Illahee Spirit Runners. It was good to hold the A.I.M flag high and carry on the A.I.M tradition of my grandfather and great uncle. A.I.M/Idle No More were in collaboration for this march which was clearly visible. I was also able to do an extra layer of security from my position looking after the front of the march. I exchanged words of unity with greater elements of A.I.M within the region. Dirty Mocs did and honor song for elder Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim that made me cry. Theres very few like her because she worked for the great spirit, thats how she was rewarded and interacted with the world, how she was in favor by the great spirit. Not like some other leaders who shall remain nameless who are still being rewarded by greed and colonial assimilation. We did not attend her service we were taking action and applying her quote “Be the voice for the voiceless” the same day of the service. I chose taking action and applting her teaching as she specificly asked me to was the best way to honor her. A few weeks ago at a Direct Action Training we hosted in Siletz with Deep Green Resistance we put tobacco on the graves of Agnes as well as Chief Depoe. It has been a tradition of Illahee Spirit Runners to offer tobacco for the chief because our cofounder is the Chickasaw grandchild by marriage of Chief Depoe. We now extend the tradition to include Agnes. At this point the march was winding down and we scrambled to the Wetsuweten solidarity rally around the way. Several people spoke. Christopher Fransisco who led the Longest Walk 3 Reversing Diabetes Northern Route was present to speak and spoke eloquently. I was able to meet with Brown Berets and honor our alliances from decades ago in the civil rights era. Its apparent that we are circling back around to unite against racism and colonialism. When i spoke of collaboration the speaker on the mic also said the words collaboration at the same time like we were on the same vibration. I met with anti colonial elements, radical elements and we passed out fliers. The aztec dancers danced for the second time that day and its nice to see people regaining cultural dance. Some kind of racist trolls showed up but Antifa scared them away. Blessings and prayers to Antifa. Doing security for indigenous leaders is a righteous act and you are noticed for your courage and participation. At this point i had hoped we were going to take over the bridge and shut it down but one can only dream. They never had the intention of direct action so thats where we come in. Like the American Indian Religious Freedom Act indigenous rights rarely get enforced unless we take action and pressure those involved to change. Change being the meaning of revolution. Understanding that political change requires force we prepare for more action. Some for Wetsuweten as long as they can hold out. And we will persist in efforts to protect wolves as a culturally significant animal. We pray for Wetsuweten Chiefs to stay true. We pray for Mohawk and other warrior societies who are activated. Much respect to Cree Warrior Society for being ever vigilant. Respect.
Illahee Spirit Runners 