Friday, November 13, 2020

GET OVER DISENROLLMENT? F**K YOU! Says Hopland's Michelle Hammock:

Michelle Hammock Hopland Disenrolled

My friend Michelle Hammock, one of the HOPLAND 74 disenrolled has a powerful piece up on her webpage .  I was proud to share a podium with her in Sacramento as we shared our stories of disenrollment, I wrote about that here.  I ripped my speech up after hearing hers..

The act of disenrollment is an act of genocide, whether the Genocide Convention recognizes it as such or not. It removes the living and deceased identities of federally recognized individuals and strips them of their treaty rights, their tribal constitutional rights, and their legal identities. It breaks families apart and expires the identities of a group of people. It strips them of the federal protections afforded to only Native tribal people uniquely agreed upon with our dominantly white government.

And we are called hateful for decrying the acts. For calling it out and never letting it be forgotten. We are the hate filled ones that need to shut our mouths for the sake of other people’s reputations. We are told to get over it. We are told that because of “our” hate that no one would want us back. We are told that we are so blinded in hate that we cannot offer anything to our tribes.    And to that I say Fuck You!



Life after disenrollment is different for everyone. For some, the experience was so distraught that they have to find a healthy way of living away from the ordeal just to keep from having to relive the horror of the injustice everyday. Others may find that resuming as much of their life pre-disenrollment and moving forward for the sake of their families and the everyday routines they align themselves on is best. And there are the ones where it killed them. Literally.

And then there are folks like me. The ones that people call out as the hateful ones. The ones who are loud mouthed and loose lipped over the corrupt and unjust acts that were levied against them. The ones who never let it go and live everyday in devotion to seeking justice in any form necessary. The un-resting and unrelenting bunch of angry and hurt people, victims of paper genocide carried out by the crooked, uneducated and certainly, uncaring elected farces of tribal council leadership.



OP:   We all should be loud mouthed on this issue that has affected us, our children and our ancestors.   HOW can we expect things to change, if we don't stand up for what is right, and just? Why should OTHERS stand up for us, if we don't stand up for ourselves

PLEASE, I urge you to read Michelle's piece, and share it.  I URGE you to get involved, get BACK involved and let's fight it in the court of public opinion.

2 comments:

URBAN NATIVE said...

Wow, this is true felt activism in its very truthful state. I really felt this in my soul.
Thank you lord for Michelle.

Anonymous said...

At least this woman has the balls/guts to say what she feels/thinks about her abusers.
Why does the United States Government think that it is okay for these corrupt leaders to rape and kill off true and legit blood members
of a Tribe.
It's because it is like some say,"It's all about the money" that these leaders donate to them so they turn a blind eye to the corruption.
They were all taught by Professor Howard Dickstien aka Howard Dickstain.