My wife found this on craigslist this morning and forwarded it to me. I know my thoughts and feelings on this kind of thing. (They are not nice thoughts and feelings)


http://carbondale.craigslist.org/for/2466349015.html

wow... i can say that i believe you and i are thinking along the same lines. maybe those that are "native at heart" can get help here ....

What I read on their site translated means..........For only $19.95 you can become and authentic certified indian and enjoy all of the government benefits. Talk about degrading. I have explained in the past why I will not enroll, and based on those same reasons this is very offensive and insulting to me personally. Most nations have very limited resources and they are spread thin among the people, with a thicker layer at the top in the more corrupted nations. Then I see money grubbers like this advertising become indian and enjoy all the handouts. Makes me want to scalp someone with a rusty butter knife. Those handouts were bought, earned, and paid for with the blood and dignity of our Grandmothers and Grandfathers, the ONLY people in my belief that are entitled to those things are the people that live on the reservations, practice their cultures and keep language and traditions alive. For whatever reason any of us might have left or been removed from the reservation we forfiet the right to those resources. I have done well in the white world better when I stopped trying to play by European rules. What kind of man would I be if I claimed resources from someone on the reservation that has not had the life experience I have? I would be a thief stealing the very hope of life from someone who for whatever reason has not walked as fortunate of a path as myself. I would be no man at all I would be Wasichu. If you have no clue of whether you are of the firsst nations or not then YOU ARE NOT.
I see this as nothing more than a offer to aid someone in comitting theft. Sorry if I am not making much sense but reading this made me very angry and even a few hours later I find myself still very much on the verge of rage that this site exist and more so that people seem to utilize it.

believe me when i say that i agree with you 100 percent .... this was the reason for posting the wanbli sina wi article .... many people are 1/100th indian, yet they are allowed to cash in on health care benefits and other benefits that many registered full bloods are not allowed to enjoy. Most of these people have never even visited a reservation, let alone are not able to speak thier language, know thier culture or even can tell you who thier real relatives are. For years i have stood against exploiters of our nations benefits and ways. Its funny how many that raise a stink about us being "one tribe" are usually the same people who abuse these benefits. SR ... great job at bringing this to light in front of all those that belong to this community and to those that lurk. I know of a few "on line indian communities" that use this website to further thier explotation of indian people with thier new age theology and thier one tribe pan indian ways .... again ... wopila tanka .... hoka hey

I can only say I agree with you both on this matter. These people are only trying to exploit people like me, who only have oral traditions from their elders, but not as smart. I know there are free resources a person can use to find where their heritage is. If I had $20 I could spare I would do a little research project on this group. I have not had the opportunity to check out the BIA resources to find my heritage. Perhaps when I have some concrete information to go on, I may, for shits and giggles, give these exploiters a call, just to see if their information jives with the BIA. Like you, StormsRider, I want no benifits, I do not deserve them. I have a feeling their information will not be the same as the BIA.

Flip there is nothing wrong with knowing your history and in a sense your ancestors. If they are German or Chinese or whatever. If it happens to be one of the American First Nations great. Everyone should know their heritage and pass it on as part of their legacy. Every single culture has its up and downs.
I do find it amusing that for 500 years the invaders killed and assimilated trying to make every nation like them. Now days it seems so many of the children of the invaders want to be what their ancestors tried so very hard to destroy.
I have been around on the boards for a while now and have seen some real flakes come and go. I have also seen good people go. I often find myself wondering how Ghost Warrior is and if he is making progress in reaching his goal. I still remember Roof Topper and his unique perspectives.
At the end of the day we are in many ways a very confused people, that to this day are still scattered around the entire country. The Rez. people, the Urban people, the inner city people, the whatever kind of people I am. One thing I have found that all apsects of us share is a deep wound in our hearts and minds and really all we are asking for, no demanding is the space and the respect to allow our medicine to heal those wounds.
I don't believe non indiginous people can even begin to understand how we feel. I am not sure any one of the people fully understands how far spread and how deep our collective wound is. How do you put words to what we have survived? The Europeans did not just want to take what was ours, they wanted to exterminate any trace of our existence. They literally took us to the brink of extinction and full bloods are still very much in danger of becomming extinct. There is nothing noble in this, there is nothing romantic. In many places by many people we are still considered to be animals even a mixed blood is considered tainted and just as bad as a fullblood. In Duquoin IL there is a car wash with a picture of two big nosed, half naked, very stupid looking cartoon indians on its business sign yeah that is us big nosed and not quite intelligent enough to be human.. In Springfield IL. there is the Crazy Horse concrete Company what honor for one of the greatest men who ever lived. It goes on and on we are always reminded that we are just little bit less than human.
I have no word that can describe what many of us feel. When the one tribe talk starts and the I want to be a Indian nonsense goes full throttle is any wonder we go defensive and protective of our blood. You may not be the one who killed our anscestors and stole literally everything from us, but you benifit from the theft, your society is based on our suffering, your towns and cities are built on our graves, to this day we still have no voice that is heard but we are still here. I don't hate any white, black hispanic or asian for being what they are or where they were born. I do hate the system that gives every other race and culture privilige over those who have a blood bond to this land for atleast 40,000 years prior to the invasion and then treat those of us who survive the continued genocide as if we are subhuman.
Very simply we will can not afford to trust anyone who does not share our blood again. Everytime we have over the last 500 years a little more of us dies off and is lost. The issue here really has nothing to do with you or your race and culture, it has everything to do with preserving, maintaining and nurturing our own race and culture back to health. I don't know why so many whites and blacks find this so offensive.

Perhaps they find this so offensive is because they really have no empathy. They do not even know their own history. What they believe is their history, is only half truth. They are blinded by the government propaganda taught in school. I get very angry when I hear black americans, calling for "repreations" from the government. I refuse to call them "african americans". Few, if any, were born in africa. They believe that slavery began with the amerikan government. In amerika , it was begun by the spanish, dutch, french and british. Yet, I never hear any black americans demanding that the spanish, french, dutch or british governments pay them the "reprations". My father is so proud of the fact that we are direct decendants of jefferson davis, the only president of the confederate states of amerika. There is no honor in that fact. The man was a coward. When union forces captured him he was dressed as a woman trying to save his own ass. If the black amerikans knew their own history, they would not have defaced a statue of Robert E. Lee. He was anti slavery. They would also know how the spanish treated the Inca, Maya, Aztec, and the First Nations in the south west u.s., who were taken as slaves to work in their gold and silver mines. Sorry Wali, I mean no disrespect, only stating truth.

StormsRider, we are living under the amerikan version of the nazi party. All who are not born white are sub human, and only fit for extermination. I have no choice but to believe I am descended of the First Nations. I can not believe that my grandmother or other elders woudl lie to me. If their words are proven to be false, I would have no choice but to believe it was a lie. If a lie, I would still throw my lot in with the First Nations. That is where my heart belongs.

I have to admit that sadness and discouragement are my prevalent feelings in these cases: I went on that website yesterday afternoon....
But this time something made me glad: I've discovered that NdN is not always so serious...!

The page has actually been removed by craiglist. So I have absolutely no idea what the subject of controversy is.