[MD] DQU and Rudy James (No relation to William)

[John Carl]

well...


That was interesting.  And amazing.  I went to my mom's place to work a bit,
install a pocket door and talk to her friend Rudy who was visiting.  Rudy
had left the night before and was still gone when I got there, but as I was
unloading my tools he pulled up.  He said he'd gone to a friend's house in
Woodland and had spent the night playing Chess.  A chess playing Indian, my
kind of guy.  I asked him if he knew about DQ University - I was hopeful
because not only is Rudy an Indian, he's an Indian activist and leader and
DQ University is near Woodland so I figured he might know a bit about it.


He did.  He knows ALL about it.  So I had to sit down with him and spend the
morning explaining who Robert Pirsig is and what DQ means to the MoQ and why
I was so interested.   In the back of my mind I was thinking about the huge
freeway sign, DQ UNIVERSITY which perches on I-505, a normal, large
California Freeway sign, pointing out the offramp way  to a place that only
operates in imagination.


So  I learned a lot about the actual DQ University.  Rudy was invited to be
a teacher there while he was on faculty at UC Davis and he had some
first-hand experience wrangling with the board.  His comment to me, after
we'd been discussing for a while is "Those BIA Indians don't care much for
me.  They think I'm a trouble maker."


Well, he is.  I didn't realize how much until I got home and started
googling.  Up to this point I didn't even know Rudy's last name, just that
he's been invited to a lot of world leadership conference things and has
some standing at the UN as a leader of indigenous people.  He said his main
plea to the board was in bringing in more practical   vocational training
and they didn't want to listen. Demeaning physical labor was what they
heard.  They wanted to train Indians to be doctors, not truck drivers.  Rudy
says the board is not very educated themselves and they are a bit hard to
reason with.   But I've always known Rudy and I were on a similar wavelength
and this confirmed it for me.  If I'd had questions about how to contact
whatever board was in charge of the place, I now knew how to do it.  And
that it would probably be futile.


Probably, not definitely tho.  I asked Rudy, "Now that they've lost their
accreditation, do you think they might be more open to new ideas?"  And he
thought they would.


He mentioned someone named Grace who'd jumped the fence with a bunch of
other Indians when the land was being acquired, the daughter of Jim

Thorpe, evidently, who'd expressed to Rudy that she was willing to jump a
fence again.  Evidently another real firecracker, I can picture a bunch of
people milling around, uncertain what to do, and then this grandmotherly
woman climbs the official fence, a bunch of people follow, and then
officialdom caves.    Too bad she
died<http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/04/07/grace_thorpe_tribal_judge_and_daughter_of_jim_thorpe/>last
year.



The buildings are insubstantial, but the land is one square mile.  You can
do a lot in a square mile.


So, all I need to do is work out a plan, hand it to Rudy over a chess game,
and have him send it on to the board for consideration.    No problem.


yeah.  right.


The most fascinating aspects of learning all this, is googling and reading
the wild life and times of Rudy James, Tlinket Judge, leader and sometimes
accused of being a con man.  He made national and international news back in
1994 over a case of two Tlingets who were charged with robbery whom Rudy
talked a judge into handing over to tribal justices, representing himself as
a tribal judge.  The more I read his story the more I was reminded of the
Zuni in Lila, a guy who is first vilified by his people and then ends up  as
leader.


Ok... fascinating links to Rudy's story and snippets from my research:


A review<http://www.colorado.edu/journals/standards/V6N2Pride/REVIEWS/raven.html>of
a book he wrote:




A long-time Native Rights activist and advocate of the Traditional Tribal
Law and Justice systems, the political work of Rudy James has made
international headlines. His Tlingit name and title were foretold in dreams,
and only James may act as First and Oldest Raven during his life-time.

Devilfish Bay honors both the present-day work of James and his people, as
well as the ancestral heritage from which it stems.


NY Times Article<http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/us/indian-boys-exile-turns-out-to-be-hoax.html?pagewanted=1>

When two young convicted robbers were released last week to a man who said
he was an Indian tribal judge empowered to punish the boys by banishing them
to a pair of remote islands in Alaska, the case drew international
attention.

Never before had an American court allowed defendants to be punished by
banishment. But a judge here in Snohomish County, north of Seattle, was
assured that it was a traditional form of Tlingit justice, and it was hailed
by some as a bold and innovative move in a criminal justice system gone
awry.

Now it turns out that there is no such thing as banishment in Tlingit
culture, according to tribal leaders and elders in Alaska. And prosecutors
say the self-styled tribal judge is a con man with a history of bad debt.

As for the boys, nearly a week after they were supposed to show up in the
southeastern Alaskan town of Klawock for processing, their whereabouts are
unknown; the prosecutor fears they have fled to Canada. Judge? What Judge?



Description <http://www.amazon.com/Devilfish-Bay-Giant-Story/dp/1891081004>of
Rudy and his book from Amazon:

A captivating storyteller and lecturer, Kuiu Tribal Spokesman and Historian,
Rudy James draws from a rich Oral Tradition. He began life in a remote SE
Alaska Tlingit Indian village. Dreams foretold his birth, his gender, and
the leadership name or title that he would carry. ThlauGooYailthThlee means
The First and Oldest Raven, and no one else can hold that name while he is
alive. Rudy James is a member of the Raven Moiety, Thleenadih, the First
House of the Dog Salmon Clan, the Teedgth Hit, the Shakan Kwaan. He is also
a member of the Kuiu Kwaan. James remembers the years before Alaska
statehood when members of his tribe lived close to their traditional lands,
waters and resources and knew each other by their Indian names. His Tlingit
name means the First and Oldest Raven, a name and title that no one else can
hold while he is alive. His birth, gender and name were foretold in dreams.
Rudy James grew up in a traditional Tlingit home, hunting, fishing and
gathering to help put food on the table. As the sixth of fifteen children,
this was no small task.


Time mag article:<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981427-2,00.html>

The mythologies of many Native American tribes feature a character known to
anthropologists as the trickster. He is both good and bad; a creator but
also a mischief maker. Above all, he is duplicitous: joyously, energetically
deceptive. Among the Tlingit people of western Alaska, the trickster figure
is known as the Raven. At the moment, however, someone bearing a striking
resemblance to him is roaming the Ketchikan area under another name.

**

Last Thursday marked the first day of what is without question the most
widely publicized legal proceeding in Tlingit history. In the 750-person
lumber and fishing town of Klawock, Alaska, 12 self-proclaimed tribal judges
pondered the fate of two young criminals. The "tribal court" had the
trappings of authenticity: the hall had been ritually purified with a
"devil's club" branch, and some of the judges wore red and black ceremonial
blankets and gestured with eagle and raven feathers. But there were abundant
reasons for skepticism, both of the tribunal and the sentence it was likely
to mete out. Not least of which was its presiding magistrate: one of the
more creative cross-cultural jurists in recent legal history, Rudy James.


Really good article<http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-21/news/mn-15520_1_tlingit-indians>from
LA Times


Ever since, a small army of Tlingits has been donating time and money they
can ill afford to carry out what has become the most costly and divisive
undertaking in the tribe's recent history.

Thus far, Tlingit fishermen, lumberjacks and tribal leaders have spent more
than $60,000 and an estimated 10,000 man-hours on the legal work, food,
bedding, tools, fishing trawlers and muscle needed to settle the wayward
youths on separate islands in southeastern Alaska's vast Alexander
Archipelago.

Relatives of the two 18-year-olds have given $5,000 in cash to Whittlesey,
who suffered permanent damage to his hearing and eyesight in the attack,
toward restitution they say will not be complete until they buy him a duplex
home in this seaside community about 26 miles north of Seattle.

But what once appeared as an entire tribe coming together to take
responsibility for the actions of its youths has devolved into intra-tribal
squabbling. Some say it is a clash between traditionalists, who insist
banishment and restitution are crucial to the rehabilitation of both the
victim and criminals, and assimilationists who are not all that unhappy with
the American system of justice.

There also are rumbles from Snohomish County prosecutors, who argue that
Allendoerfer is treating Native Americans differently from other defendants.
They also were incensed that the youths initially were placed on U.S. Forest
Service land and armed with high-powered rifles.

"Is the banishment worth it? Yes," said Tlingit Tribal Court Judge Rudy
James, 59, who shepherded the novel arrangement with his wife, Diana, and a
handful of tribal elders.

"The point is not just restitution and rehabilitation," James said. "This is
an act of sovereignty that stands for the continuation of our people and our
ways."

A thousand miles to the north, the teen-agers have spent the last eight
months on separate islands foraging for berries and firewood in the forest,
scouring beaches for edible shellfish and carving wooden halibut hooks for
sale toward restitution.

Tlingits hope the youths will discover their heritage and honor in the
process. With only two books to read--the Bible and a treatise on Tlingit
culture--there also will be plenty of time to reflect on their crime.

In a videotaped interview conducted last October at his banishment site,
Guthrie conceded that while "everyone has demons, mine are some real bad
dudes."

While some critics view the banishment as a ploy to circumvent the justice
system, supporters say it speaks to a larger nationwide movement of
indigenous people seeking sovereignty--and alternatives to a legal system
they believe does not work for Native Americans.

The problem is clear, they say, in the youths' home state of Alaska, where
tribal people account for 30% of all state prison inmates, while making up
only 16% of the state's population. There, too, the recidivism rate for
tribal members hovers at about 50%, according to the state Department of
Corrections.

"American Indians want to return to traditional sanctions that worked for
them, and it all turns on a yearning for self-determination and setting
their own cultural norms," said Charles Wilkinson, a law professor at the
University of Colorado at Boulder and an expert on state and federal laws as
they apply to Native Americans. "The best example," he said, "is the concept
of making a victim whole again and engaging in some form of healing that
will make the offender not do wrong again."

Kenneth Tollefson, a professor of anthropology at Seattle Pacific University
and an expert on Tlingit history and culture, put it another way.

"The American court system says, 'You serve your time, you pay your bill.'
It turns out ex-cons," Tollefson said. "The Tlingit system says, 'You don't
pay your bill until you compensate the victim and satisfy tribal elders that
you're rehabilitated.' It turns out restored people and a healed community."

Historically, he said, banishment was one method of achieving those goals
for the Tlingits, who are one of a growing number of tribes trying to
restore and expand traditional laws.

The sharpest criticism comes from members of the federally recognized tribal
council in Klawock, who regard James as a meddlesome outsider because his
tribal court is from a Tlingit clan other than the one that dominates
Klawock.

"This could have been a positive thing for native people--a huge step
forward," said Roseanne Demmert, president of Klawock's tribal council. "The
problem is with the person the boys were turned over to, Rudy James, who is
a self-proclaimed judge and leader."

Not so, say traditionalist tribal elders in Klawock, who pleaded for James'
tribal court to intervene on the youths' behalf in the first place.

"Rudy and his wife, Diana, have done a good job in this case," said tribal
elder Byron Skinna, who skippers a fishing trawler used to replenish the
youths' provisions.

"In traditional Tlingit society everybody looks after the tribe's children,"
he said. "These boys are part of the tribe. If they are rehabilitated, it is
worth every bit of the effort put into it."

Added Skinna: "Putting people in jail doesn't teach anybody anything but how
to be better criminals."

Before their arrests, Guthrie and Roberts were, by all accounts,
hell-raisers. Now, according to Skinna, they are on the road to responsible
maturity.

The youths are not the only ones who have changed. Whittlesey's parents, who
were devastated by their son's injuries, have become staunch supporters of
the banishment effort.

"Would we do this for one of our own children?" Max Whittlesey, a
52-year-old mechanical engineer, wondered.

"Of course, what happened is a tragedy, and I'm not saying we haven't
screamed to God and asked, 'Why?' We'd just like to see these boys come out
totally reformed. If the banishment works, they'll find inner strength to
help them survive in prison and not come out polished criminals."

Tim Whittlesey, whose marriage fell apart shortly after the attack, said he
also is prepared to forgive.

However, he said: "I may never overcome the fear of walking up to an
unfamiliar door at night."


And how it all ended, according to Seattle
Times<http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951004&slug=2144978>

However, infighting between a deeply divided tribal court forced
Allendoerfer to bring the men back early. The split tribal court held two
review hearings last month, with both sides refusing to attend the other
side's meeting. The separate courts then issued conflicting recommendations
to Allendoerfer about the fate of the two men.

Yesterday, the men, their attorneys and some tribal judges asked
Allendoerfer to allow the experiment to continue until March, as originally
agreed.

Allendoerfer denied the request. However, he called the banishment a
successful but flawed experiment.

"I find that this experiment has some flaws which threaten its credibility
and integrity. . . . It's time to end this experiment while it can still be
ended on a positive note," he said.

Despite the problems, the two men appeared to have benefited from their
isolation, and the highly publicized experiment opened the dialogue for
potential change in the criminal-justice system, Allendoerfer said.

"It's better to limp in the right direction than to run in the wrong
direction," he said.

Rudy James, the lead tribal judge who persuaded Allendoerfer to give the
tribal court jurisdiction over the two men, said he was thankful for the
opportunity Allendoerfer gave his court and that he

would pursue other cases. James said he is working on several other cases,
of which one is similar to the Snohomish County case. James would not give
specifics about the case.


Amusing interview<http://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/0196/9601dica.html>
of
the boys from Outside Mag:

*It must have been tough, being taken away from your family.*
Well, you know, I saw Dad a lot. He bought a boat just for this
banishment--a 16- or 17-foot outboard with one of those convertible
tops--and he'd come out and visit. It just took him, like, 20 minutes to get
there.

*Didn't reporters visit, too?*
Yeah. They had these funny-looking snow boots and these see-through rain
jackets that I thought people only wore in California. Adrian made one of
them chop his wood.

*What was your most terrifying moment?*
Well, bigfoot is out there. I could sense him sometimes, and one morning
around 6:30 there was this big old bang on my cabin... After that, I didn't
play my music too loud.

*Music?*
Yeah, the tribal judges left me all this thick wire, and I strung it about
65 feet up in a tree to make an antenna for my radio. I got a station on the
border of Mexico that played fifties music; 1410, in Canada, played nothing
but love music.

*What else did you do for fun?*
I hiked on the beach and sat in my cabin carving halibut hooks. I wrote a
lot--letters, poems, songs. I got seven songs down.

*Yeah? Let's hear one.*
"I was banished to the island for my rehabilitation, / As I was tried by the
Tlingit..." That's the refrain. I don't want to sing the whole thing because
it isn't copyrighted yet. I need, you know, a good agent and an
entertainment lawyer. Do you know anybody?


Rudy's most recent <http://www.altaimir.org/articles.htm> doin's in Siberia:

*Rudy James, Tlingit Tribal Judge*

In searching for strategies that might provide some relief, we encountered
Rudy

James, spokesman and tribal judge for the Tlingit people of Alaska, as well
as

Secretary-General of United Indigenous Nations. Judge James has compiled a

comprehensive notebook of legal precedents for Native American rights, and
used

this information to successfully prevent a United States Supreme Court
decision

regarding Alaskan lands.


In June, 2008, AMU sponsored James’ travel to Altai to meet with Altai

leaders as well as make a presentation at the 10th Global Leadership Forum
in

Novosibirsk. James was particularly interested because another name for the
Altai

people is the Telengit, which points to a probable connection between Altai
and

the Tlingit Nation in Alaska.