[L-I] Some Substantive Matters [Hunter Gray/Hunter Bear]

FROM HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR:

This covers several things.

I frequently receive individual e-mail queries on various matters, always
try to respond helpfully, and usually succeed to some extent.  Native
Americans are much among the topics involved.  Here are two links from our
large Hunterbear website  www.hunterbear.org -- which will, if you are
interested, take you to two quite long and comprehensive posts of mine in
that subject area. [There is much other Native material as well at our
site -- but these give a solid overview with considerable component detail.]

NATIVE ISSUES AND OTHER MATTERS: RECOGNITION, GOVERNANCE, FEDERAL INDIAN
LAW,  UNITY -- AND MUCH MORE  [HUNTER GRAY  MARCH 14, 2003]

http://www.hunterbear.org/NATIVE%20ISSUES%20AND%20OTHER%20MATTERS.htm

This  is material of mine made via an interesting discussion on the SNCC
and Redbadbear lists -- and posted widely.  All have been made in the March
12-14 period.

In addition -- or, if you wish a more systematically organized and
conventional reading trail --here are two relatively recent, published
articles of mine on the Native American situation:

[NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE NEW CENTURY: TWO NEW ARTICLES FOR STRUGGLE,
ORGANIZING, FIGHTING, AND VICTORY   [Hunter Gray -  SPRING  2002] Each of
these is via this link:

http://www.hunterbear.org/nativeamericans.htm

One of these articles, NATIVE AMERICAN STRUGGLE: ONE CENTURY INTO ANOTHER
has now been published in the Spring 2002 issue of DEMOCRATIC LEFT --
official journal of Democratic Socialists of America[DSA]. On April 20,
2002, Portside [the news service of Committees of Correspondence for
Democracy and Socialism] published and sent it to about 4,300 recipients.
The second article, "NATIVES, ISSUES, AND RADICALS, has appeared in the
Spring 2002 issue of the CCDS journal DIALOGUE AND INITIATIVE as NATIVE
PEOPLES AND THE LEFT.

NATIVE AMERICAN STRUGGLE has also been published [9/9/02] on the website of
the Anti-Racism Commission [DSA],  Our Struggle/Nuestra Lucha
http://dsausa.org/antiracism/editorials/editorials.html  ]

Never hesitate to write me personally.

[I also strongly  recommend the thoughts and postings of a good friend, Jim
Craven, a Blackfoot who -- among other subjects and settings -- frequently
writes on Native matters at Louis Proyect's excellent Marxism Discussion:
http://www.marxmail.org/

In the herewith listed post above ["Native Issues and Other Matters," etc] ,
there is mention of the Mexican Indian artist, the late Jean Charlot -- who,
with his family -- were friends of many, many decades with my parents.  Only
a few weeks ago, I saw on E-Bay a number of Charlot works that were being
peddled -- at prices from fifty bucks to five thousand -- by one of his
grandchildren [with whom I'm not acquainted.]  What the circumstances are, I
know not -- but find that situation all around tragic.

During my first hospital incarceration -- I have had three this past Fall,
coming within a thin hairbreadth of permanent departure each time] -- our
family gathered in my hospital room and, in a collective fashion, we all
prepared a thorough Will which, guided fundamentally by communalism and
consensus, keeps almost everything in the Family as a Whole:  our excellent
house  and large yard on the far far western edge of Pocatello [a
specifically designated daughter can live there throughout her life and
other family members can come and reside if and whenever they wish to do
so]; our large Native arts and crafts collection -- historical and
contemporary -- remains en toto within the Family [this includes, among much
else, my father's Indian paintings]; and this sort of arrangement also
applies to my extensive collection of primarily Western United States and
Western Canadian radical materials; and to most of my large and diverse
library. Only full consensus among the designated heirs can alter these
arrangements. [Some of these things can be loaned temporarily to reputable
institutions.]  Some other things, of course, fall into a conventional
"share and share alike"  family framework.

Our large Hunterbear website will be maintained on a long-term basis,
whether or not I happen to survive.  At this point, in addition to a strong
and consistent focus on a wide range of contemporary/futuristic issues, it
has much Native material,  includes a great deal on the U.S. civil rights
movement, and on United States and Canadian radical movements.

It's become a kind of key archive on the International Union of Mine, Mill
and Smelter Workers -- widely consulted by labor activists and others from
Sudbury [Ontario] to Trail and Kimberley [BC] down into Arizona [and in many
other North American places.]  Mine-Mill, as it was generally known, was the
epitome of militancy and visionary radicalism, rank and file democracy and
racial/ethnic egalitarianism.  In 1967, almost all of it merged in the
United States and Canada with the United Steelworkers.  But the old
Mine-Mill locals that survive in the Steel union context continue to
maintain the Old Spirit of IUMMSW. One person on a discussion list objected
to my Mine-Mill postings on the grounds that "99.9 per cent" of the list
members weren't interested at all.  But I think he spoke only for himself,
and anyone really interested in what unionism can and should be would do
well to study the old Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers.

Many of the things I post will eventually appear in an autobio of sorts.  If
I am not around to complete it, my two sons -- Beba and Mack [John and
Peter] and other children and grandchildren will edit it to completion. Some
material has already been reprinted -- or will be -- with my explicit
permission.

Drove my Jeep the other day -- successfully -- for the first time since
August.

The best of everything to all of you -

Sincerely and fraternally,

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR]  Micmac/St Francis Abenaki/St Regis Mohawk --
Solidarity, SPUSA, CCDS, DSA, UAW and UALE.  A sociologist and retired full
prof and former departmental chair in Indian Studies [including Federal
Indian Law], Univ of North Dakota -- who has also taught in such settings as
the Grad Program in Urban and Regional Planning at Univ of Iowa.  [They,
BTW, are having their 30th anniversary celebration this spring and are
pushing really hard for me to come.]
www.hunterbear.org

When you cut to the bone  and cut away the college degrees, academic and
other titles, published books and articles, ours is essentially a working
class and Indian family.  We consistently join unions  -- and we always
support them with the greatest vigor.

It's critical to always keep fighting -- and to always remember that, if one
lives with grace, he/she should be prepared to die with grace.



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