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

[Ian Glendinning]

Hi John,
Oh my, my, my, my, my ...

So what are you suggesting ?

Ian

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 12:30 PM, John Carl <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
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