Thursday, April 06, 2006

Okay, let's rename this: Rantings of a Madwoman Part 2

Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 01:47:21 EST
From: ROBTSOTO@aol.com
Subject: Continue to Pray

Dear Friends:

Well, besides tribal business, today has been a quiet day. I am just sitting here waiting for a call from my lawyer. I have gotten many e-mails since Tuesday and every day they seem to pile up. I cannot keep up with all of your requests. I am thankful for your letters though, because I know and understand that I am not alone; that others are right there beside me, praying me through this crisis.

I have gotten many e-mails from people concerning the things I have written the past three days. A lot of the letters I am getting are from people who keep repeating the same thing: "Boy, I did not know..... or I cannot believe that....." A lot of you have been given feathers and you are proud of them and I am sure you carry them with pride and take good care of them. But if that feather is not legally issued by the United States government, you are just waiting for your time when one will approach you and ask for the proper paper work.
I used to wrestle alligators back in my college years in one of the Seminole reservations. I only did it on the weekends or for special events. We always prayed that we would not get bit by one of the gators but deep inside our hearts we knew it was only a matter of time. Likewise, as I travel to pow wows all over the United States and Canada, I can assure you that a lot, if not most, of those feathers are not legal. As Indians, we take a chance for the privilege of using the feathers in our dance clothing and ceremonies. It is the
same old same old. The government tells us who can use feathers or who cannot and the government tells us who can be an Indian and who cannot. The government accepts or rejects tribes. So in many ways, our lives are still in their control.

My lawyer called me yesterday and shared with me that the proclamations truly declare that we were Indians. He said, "The State of Texas recognizes you as Indians and your city recognizes you as Indians and these are two monumental institutions." As I mentioned before, I have four proclamations that have been given to me and the tribe. The first proclamation tells the People of the State of Texas and all who read it that the Lipan Apache Band of Texas are direct descendants of the original Lipan Apaches. The second proclamation was given to us on October 25, 2003, which tells the world of all the contributions we have done for our area and Texas as Lipan Apaches. One of the statements reads: "Whereas, The South Texas Indian Dancers organization was founded by Robert Soto and his family 30 years ago to help preserve the traditions of their
ancestors, the Lipan Apache People who once ruled the area.... Whereas the Soto family are direct descendants of the Lipan Apache Chief Poca Ropa, who signed a peace treaty with Mexico on August 17, 1822, to ensure peace and safety of the people in the lower Rio Grande Valley..." The third proclamation was given to us by the City of McAllen as a sign of thanks for all we have done for them the last thirty years, and to declare January 22nd as official "South Texas Indian Dancers Association Day". One of the paragraphs states: "Whereas,
many of the Lipan Apaches' families migrated into the Rio Grande Valley Region (Primarily McAllen) to start a new life as citizens of Texas. Among those migrating was the Soto Family, direct descendants of the LIpan Apaches of Texas, whom for over 100 years have continued to practice their culture and traditional customs...." The reason he wants to prove that we are truly Indians is because the Federal Agent said if I could prove I was Indian, I could keep my
feathers. So pray as the lawyer continues to do his research.

As you go into the weekend, keep praying for us. On Monday we will meet with the lawyer and see what the outcome will be. Apart from a miracle, more than likely I will have to give my feathers over to him. So keep us in prayer as we patiently wait for Monday. Whatever happens, the name of our Lord God Creator will be glorified and all we be well. We must continue to live. Tomorrow I will travel 250 miles one way to do our Native Church Service for our Indian
Friends in San Antonio. Keep our travels in prayer. God bless.

Robert Soto Lipan Apache Warrior for Jesus




PAT'S COMMENTS: I forgot to mention in the first post, that Day and I know this man personally. He is a man of peace and posesses more tolerance and grace in his pinkie than I probably have in my entire being. He has been through a lot. For those of you that have attended a few of the Native Dance Events that Day and I have helped to host, Robert is the Hoop Dancer. He is also a Fancy Dancer and has done both when he's been here in the past. He is amazing. We don't realize what these people go through to keep their culture and traditions alive. I am going to be sending a few more posts forwarded from a native e-group Day is part of, and in one of them there was mention of constitutional rights. I have to admit, I have never sat down and read through the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Have you? I did today. Wow. I think we have to keep in mind, the Host People of this land were already established here, had governments of their own in place, many were peacable and if not for some of them on the eastern coast the "pilgrims" would have STARVED to death their first winter here. What we were taught in school is not entirely correct. So as I read through these two documents, a few things seemed very clear to me: He who has the most guns wins, some of the "founding fathers" were of the opinion that although "all men were created equal" obviously Indians were not human and did not fall under the same category. What the colonists claim was happening to them by the king (in their writings of these 2 documents) were the VERY SAME THINGS THEY CAME OVER AND DID TO THE INDIANS. I have been hearing of a bill that, if passed, basically says all an illegal immigrant has to do is learn English, pay a fine and "assimilate into society." I have not looked into this to great length yet, as I just heard about this today. So I might be wrong here. Why are we deciding to do this NOW??? Why didn't the whiteys just "assimilate" into the society that was already here??? oh, wait, there are too many of them now to really do anything about it anyway...........
.........hhhhmmmmmmmmm.............. sounds familiar. I have listened to people I know for the last couple years rant and rave about illegal immigrants. My opinion was always one of "what does God think about how we act about this?" I have tried to go my own way and not rock the boat. People get upset that the label on their new toaster oven is written in Spanish as well as English. Well, guess what folks? In my personal opinion, this is a classic "reaping what you sow" thing so thank your forefathers for this. I might be very wrong here and may not be well versed in history and societal rules, BUT, it was okay for us to come over and just invade their territory and do what we wanted in the name of independence and freedom. In making our own freedom, we stole someone elses and to this day, some of us are still doing the same thing over and over. So somehow, we're going to have to live with things as they are now, or try to get some laws changed and then enforce them and be consistent in doing so. I believe we whiteys might end up the minority some day. SO, you better be thankful that Dora is teaching your kids some spanish. They might just need it some day. I go back and forth inside. On one hand, I don't like the fact that my husband works hard andpays for insurance and I still have to be responsible for my healthcare bills, while the folks down the street don't work because they make more on welfare and get their health care free. On the other hand, God calls me as a follower of Christ to be kind to my neighbor and love him as myself. We are supposed to seek justice but leave the judgements to Him. I guess I dont know how I feel about the illegal alien thing just yet. Here's a thought: how about the feds pay more attention to who's coming over the border rather than worry about who has a damn feather in their hair?????

1 Comments:

Blogger Mrs. Sara said...

Oh, Pat. I understand what you're saying. What's happening is so wrong. Thank you for sharing it with us whiteys who don't know anything about Native American culture. It's valuable information to me.

8:28 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home