“wind news”
sniffing wind knew scent
returning relatives dance
is too late hopes not
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“wind news”
January 17, 2013 at 7:29 pm (art, creative writing, culture, environment, exploring interconnectedness, life, nature, photography, poetry, random, Uncategorized, Writing)
Tags: art, clouds, creative writing, culture, exploring interconnectedness, haiku, life, Minolta X 700, Nebraska, photograph, photography, poem, poetry, random, Scotts Bluff, sky, wind news, Writing
“ME” by Cloudman
April 20, 2012 at 5:48 pm (creative writing, culture, ethics, history, Indigenous People, Lakota, life, Native Americans, Pine Ridge Indian reservation, poetry, random, Writing)
Tags: "ME", alcohol, Cloudman, creative writing, culture, Economy, fame, history, identity, Issues, Lakota, life, money, Native American, Nebraska, people, Pine Ridge Reservation, poem, poet, poetry, random, Whiteclay, Whte Clay, Writing
Cloudman, guest poet, shares “ME” — a poem that references the infamous Nebraska town of Whiteclay where selling alcohol to the Lakota is the raison de existence.
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.
.
ME
Once again White Clay memories walk in,
I was sitting by the shade of Howard’s store,
Watching as Elders came for a drive to buy,
From Howard
Lakota words on the side of his store,
Advertising food,
This White Clay is another memory,
On another day
I awoke one morning surrounded by
Federal marshals and F.B.I’s
Asking who I was What I was
Even then my identity was in question
Now I ask who am I What am
These years later when White Clay
Is more known then I
.
Cloudman
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Link to Wikipedia regarding White Clay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge,_Nebraska
From Wikipedia:
Soon after the territory entered the public domain, a trading post was set up to sell alcohol to the Lakota, and merchants have continued to do so since. In 2010, its four beer stores sold an estimated 4.9 million 12-ounce cans of beer, an average of over 13,000 cans per day, for gross sales of 3 million dollars.[1] They have no place to consume beer on site, and it is not supposed to be drunk on the streets, but there are often inebriated customers sprawled around Whiteclay. John Yellow Bird King, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, says that tribal members bring alcohol illegally back from Whiteclay and “90 percent of criminal cases in the court system” are alcohol-related.[5] Beer is sold almost exclusively to residents from the reservation, as the nearest big city is two hours to the north.[5] According to Mary Frances Berry, the 10-year chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Whiteclay can be said to exist only to sell beer to the Oglala Lakota.[6]
Victor Clarke, the owner of Arrowhead Foods, a grocery store in Whiteclay that does not sell alcohol, said he “did more than a million dollars in business last year, with an entirely Native American clientele.”[2] As the reservation has no banks and few stores, its residents spend most of their money in Nebraska border towns, for regular needs as well as alcohol. The beer stores in Whiteclay cash welfare and tax refund checks for the Oglala Lakota, taking a 3 percent commission.[5]
What’s June 23rd? Solidarity Day with Tim DeChristopher.
June 21, 2011 at 10:56 pm (art, buddhism, culture, education, entertainment, environment, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, history, journalism, life, nature, photography, politics, random, Uncategorized, Writing)
Tags: "tempting infinity", Amy Goodman, art, auction, Bidder 70, buddhism, climate change, climate justice, culture, DeChristopher, Democracy Now, Economy, entertainment, environment, ethics, eva, ideas, journalism, June 23, land, law, legal, life, media, Minolta X 700, nature, Nebraska, news, non violence, opinion, Peaceful Uprising, people, photograph, photography, politics, protest, rally, random, sale, Scottsbluff, solidarity, Tim, trial, wojcik, Writing
"tempting infinity" @ eva wojcik
Love our Earth? Enjoy the great outdoors? Want a sustainable future for everyone? Then join Peaceful Uprising, myself and others to share solidarity with Tim DeChrisptohper AKA Bidder 70, on June 23, 2011. Peaceful Uprising currently has 39 events scheduled where folks are planning on going to their federal courthouse to display an orange solidarity banner and taking photos of it. I realize not everyone has the opportunity to engage in this visual show of solidarity for DeChristopher who faces imprisonment for taking action to save public lands during an illegal land auction. What did he do? He bid on the lands and then made arrangements to purchase them to save them from illegal gas and oil development. While Tim faces imprisonment for his actions the people who arranged the illegal land auction face NO accountability for the illegal auction. DeChristpoher’s motive for his actions was not allowed to be part of his defence. Now isn’t that odd—the legal system doesn’t care why Tim DeChristopher picked up an auction paddle and became Bidder 70. But the system is apparently quite angry that he did anything to foil an illegal auction that oil and gas companies would have benefitted from. Do we smell fracking here? Hmm? Surely not! The legal system is so ticked off it has delayed sentencing DeChrisptopher yet again! Apparently it got wind of the planned solidarity rally in Utah and decided to keep things “quiet” in order to not attract media coverage. Well, I seriously doubt there will be much media coverage on June 23. Hey, the mainstream press IGNORED the protests in Wisconsin for as long as possible. It knew of and ignored the War Protests in front of the White House where 144 people were arrested. Corporate media wants no part of people speaking truth to power as DeChristopher has done. So, it’s up to me–and you as the audience–you’re here reading, right?–to do the media’s job and spread the word about Tim DeChristopher as Bidder 70. Information is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Get informed. Get empowered. Empower others. Share solidarity on June 23 by spreading the news! Visit Peaceful Uprising to learn about the actions, trial, sentencing and events. There’s even a rally location map online. It’s just for the USA. Why don’t we make it GLOBAL? Get informed then decide for yourself to tweet/blog/text/facebook –or not– in Solidarity with DeChristopher on June 23. It’s about YOUR future too.
Peaceful Uprising, Defending a Livable Future through empowering NON-violent action.
Peaceful Uprising is also on facebook–(to which I currently cannot post a link for some reason).
Amy Goodman’s interview with Tim DeChristopher and other coverage is available at www.democracynow.org
http://www.democracynow.org/search?query=tim+dechristopher&commit=Search
What would George Orwell think about this????
Please leave links to any sharing of solidarity! Let’s connect!
Cloud Man’s “White Clay”
April 12, 2011 at 9:38 pm (creative writing, culture, education, environment, ethics, food, history, Indigenous People, Lakota, life, Native Americans, Pine Ridge Indian reservation, poetry, politics, random)
Tags: borders, childhood, children, Cloud Man, creative writing, culture, family, food, history, Howard's Store, ice cream, identity, Lakota, language, life, local history, memories, musings, Native Americans, Nebraska, pain, Pine Ridge Reservation, poem, poetry, random, thoughts, White Clay, Writing
@ Guest Poet, Cloud Man
White Clay
This is a border place. Like all borders.
There is a feel that defies interpretation.
How does one define nostalgia for pain,
I miss my father beating my mother Or
When my mother drank she cursed my father.
I used to eat bologna sandwiches, potato chips for dinner
Dinner? Or was it a snack it was what I had for lunch?
If I went north towards home
If I went south into tomorrow
Some have made this border place a cause
I spent hours of my childhood here
How does one know of borders
When one becomes the border
I am still in between places
I still have the last potato chip bag
And that bologna skin ring
From the last night at White Clay
White Clay II
There used to be an ice cream shop,
Across from Howard’s Store
One Sunday I counted all the families
Coming for floats
Chocolate and vanilla cones.
On Howard’s Store wall
Were Lakota words.
If you could read Lakota
These were items he sold
A grocery list
I used to sit in the shade by that store
A few essentials for all living things…
October 18, 2010 at 4:18 am (art, culture, environment, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, life, nature, photography, religion)
Tags: "Water", Agate Fossil Beds, art, black and white photography, clean air, culture, Earth, environment, Issues, life, Minolta X 700, Nebraska, photography, random, sky, waterscape
Agate Oasis
Clean earth, air, and water. Emphasis is on CLEAN–as in non-toxic, not polluted, FRESH. No, this is not LA’s landscape. It’s the Agate Fossil Beds in western Nebraska. Believe it or not, there are places where automobile traffic noise does not dominate the land. One can hear the grasses growing at this National Park. Where do you go for some peace and quiet?
Just discovered Gabrielle’s post and poem about water–check it out at http://gabriellebryden.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/plumbing-the-depths/#comment-3791
Straight? Narrow?
October 11, 2010 at 6:40 pm (art, buddhism, culture, ethics, exploring interconnectedness, life, nature, photography, random, Writing)
Tags: art, buddhism, culture, environment, eva, humans, life, nature, Nebraska, people, photograph, photography, random, road, thouhts, wrting
So much for the straight and narrow way.
@evawojcik
Often we think there’s got to be a direct, simple path to wherever we’re going physically, mentally or spiritually. By now I suspect most of us realize that most routes are anything but straight, narrow or direct. I’d like to see the builders of the line of that road try to traverse the rising landscape. Actually I’d rather not–because of the destruction that would come with the roadway. Even when I was shooting this image I was thinking that the road would not outlast the land on which it lays. Roadways are puny human efforts in comparison to the land sculptures of Nature. Perhaps it’s our awareness of our own limits that causes some among us to push beyond the boundaries of balanced existence in order to attempt to assert control over the world. Well, no human constructed control system ever outlasts the natural world. We can build all the ingenious pyramids we want, but in the end, we’re just biological organisms mainly composed of water.
On the edge shooting
September 23, 2010 at 4:59 pm (art, education, entertainment, environment, exploring interconnectedness, life, nature, photography, play, random, Uncategorized)
Tags: "tart of the arts", art, cameras, culture, entertainment, environment, inspiration, Ken Rockwell, life, Minolta X 700, nature, Nebraska, opinion, people, photograph, photography, random, Scottsbluff
way down there
@wojcik
The former Tart of the Arts aka Richard North and his assorted “personalities” recently posted about not having a fancy camera and having to save for one in order to get better photographs. Well, in an effort to encourage the Tart and everyone else thinking they’re stuck in a bog because they can’t afford high dollar digital camera toys I offer you the mentality of one photographer–Ken Rockwell. According to Rockwell the camera is not the most important part of the equation–it’s US and what we do with whatever camera tool/toy we’ve got. Rockwell says this better than moi so check out his absolutely no-nonsense thinking —> http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm
Yes, ENCOURAGE your own creativity!
Oh and as usual, I shot “way down there” with a Minolta x 700–yeah, that’s film. If you’re interested, Rockwell has a few words to say about my tool/toy of choice that might be of some interest.
Yep, this is from Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
Tall & Short or Near and Far
August 31, 2010 at 6:56 pm (art, culture, environment, life, photography)
Tags: Agate Fossil Beds, black & white photography, culture, environment, life, nature, Nebraska, photography
More breathing space for everyone feeling boxed in by their cubicles, cars, and crazed companions. Breathe deep, feel the breeze around your knees, and relax.
Sideways
August 15, 2010 at 3:22 am (art, environment, nature, photography)
Tags: environment, Minolta X 700, nature, Nebraska, photo, photograph, photography, Scottsbluff, wojcik
Sideways
@wojcik
om mani padme hum jewel in the lotus wahupa qi prana universal life energy
