[L-I] Che Guevera and Billy Weatherford [Red Eagle]

The people who murdered Che Guevara were cold blooded killers, no more and
no less.

Why Front Page mag [David Horowitz et al.] is being splashed on ASDnet --
along with the other anti-Cuban stuff -- strikes me as weird, bizarre and
surreal.  The article [not surprisingly] trashes Che Guevara and the
developing Hollywood film being made on his life and times.

I'm beginning to do some very, very limited outside walking these days.  My
grandson/son, Thomas, who with his mother Maria and his sister, Samantha,
has lived with us almost all his life, is in Medicine at ISU and one of
those who accompanies me.  As we walked along today, I gave him another of
my lectures on Indian history.  Thomas, in addition to everything from our
side of the family, is one-half Mississippi Choctaw [Neshoba and Leake
counties, piney woods hill country and bloody turf.]  The Choctaws and the
Creeks have been traditional neighbors.  And when I was a kid, there was --
among other great historical warriors -- a Creek hero of mine:  Billy
Weatherford, Red Eagle, the great war chief.  Billy Weatherford was Red
Stick Creek -- and Highland Scottish.

During the War of 1812, in which the militant Red Stick Creeks especially
supported the British against Andrew Jackson et al, Red Eagle and his
warriors slaughtered the Americans at Fort Mims in Alabama.  Five hundred
Americans were killed.  Only about a dozen survived to bring the news to
Jackson.  Depictions of the resolution of the Fort Mims problem show bloody
hatchets being swung in all directions.  If you're Indian, it can't help but
stir you.

Jackson, labeling Billy Weatherford, the "Indian butcher of Fort Mims,"
swore to kill him on sight.

And then one day, a shadow fell across the door of Jackson's tent.  It was
Weatherford, Red Eagle.  "General Jackson," he said, "I am not afraid of you
for I am a Creek warrior. Do with me as you please.  I have done the whites
all the harm I could.  If I had an army, I would yet fight.  But I have
none.  I cannot animate the dead."

Although soldiers and others who had lost relatives and friends at the hands
of Weatherford's warriors screamed for the Creek leader's head, Jackson
ordered them away and refused to make Red Eagle a prisoner.  The cries for
vengeance continued for years -- and Weatherford was seen by many Americans
as a threat for much of his remaining life -- but he was neither imprisoned
nor harmed.

Andrew Jackson was no special friend of Indians -- quite the contrary on
occasion -- but he could exhibit honor, especially when he saw great honor
and high courage in its own right.

HUNTER GRAY  [HUNTER BEAR]
www.hunterbear.org

In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the
high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down
on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings.  Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunter Bear]









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