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antoinette
nora
claypoole |
Heyoka Magazine: How and
why did you become interested in Indian country and when
did this interest first take place?
antoinette nora claypoole: Interesting question yet one which eludes me.
Why? Because I never really "became interested" in Indian
County. The phrase ecoming interested reminds me of something
like "oh she became interested in pottery, so she took classes
and bought a kiln". You see? So....Hmm....Maybe Indians just
became interested in me, maybe that's what happened, hard to
tell. . All I know is that a college friend was hanging out
with an old Indian guy out west here, in Oregon. We all met,
hung out in the same big old house together in Coos Bay, Oregon
and Al Smith. He is a Klamath Modoc man, Smith his mission name
who ended up taking the lawsuit against the U.S. gov't protecting
Native American Church, peyote ceremony, as a religious right of
all Indians. At the time he was a simple, random Indian guy my
friend was living with, and.... well...... he talked alot about
how Indian ceremonies were just made legal in 1978, Freedom of
Religion Act, signed by Jimmy Carter, about a "pimpmobile" Al
bought back in the late 1950's when feds showed up on his land in
South eastern Oregon and were "buying Indians".
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antoinette claypoole photo © Jaap Vanderplas |
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Offering 10 grand
to each tribal person if they would sign away the rights to the
reservation land. That was part of the big "last assimilation
plan" of the 1950's. It happened all over the States at the
time. But I didn't know ANY of this Indian history, and Al kept
telling it like some kind of keeper of the legends, or
something. FOr some reason he told us all this history and then
one day said hey you want to go into lodge?
Hmm....what is a
lodge anyway? So there we had many more sit out back in the
pacific sun and wind and Al telling us what lodge is. Clean
and sober for 3 days before going in. That was the part I
remembered the most. It took me six months to go into ceremony
with Al out on Seven Devils Road in Bandon, Oregon. My life
flashed over me like a home movie, 8mm on white sheet hanging
in gramma's front room. I saw things I didn't want to be doing,
I saw things I wanted to become and heard things I would never
repeat. When I came out of ceremony I asked Al what I could to
thank him for sharing these ways, this ceremony with me. His
answer? "Help my people. You have an education, you can write.
WHen my people need help be there for us." Sounded simple
enough. I said yes of course. A few years years later I was
helping fight forced relocation of Dine (Navajo) grammas in Big
Mountain, Az., camping in resistance with members of the
American Indian Movement.
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Another way
to answer your question might be by quoting a once old Lakota
friend and his endorsement to my book, historical fiction,
about Big Mountain:"antoinette came from back East before the
Freedom of Religion Act, before the changes for Indian
Children in the Child Welfare System. Back in the 1970's.
When she came to Oregon they were still arresting Indians in
small towns. She started working on Indian rights when it
was not popular to be Indian."
HM: At
what point did you start writing about American Indians?
antoinette nora claypoole:
Writing about Indians was never really my thing, my intention or
passion. What WAS my drive, however, was writing about injustice
in this world out of balance. My first small piece was written
while I was a member of the SDS back in Indiana, Pa., in college.
Then when I moved out west my first published piece--in a small
bioregional paper--- was regarding the abuse of migrant
farmworkers in the Rogue Valley, S. Oregon back in 1982.
About Indians? I have never written "about" Indians, but "for"
their struggles,
reality and lives. In keeping my promise to Al Smith, to help
when I could,
I wrote for various tribes and organized events regarding
illegal and
genocidal tactics still being practiced by the U.S. gov't. Those
writings
began in the 1980's. One of the first events i organized--wrote
up various PR
pieces--was an event called "Apartheid in America". We radical
and driven to
inform Southern Oregon and our bio region about various issues
happening in
Indian Country which "mainstream" folks knew nothing about. This
was of course before computers, when information about injustice
and genocide in Indian Country was VERY difficult to
disseminate. So. I Designed posters, wrote press, brought
together Indian artists, poets, members of International Indian
Treaty Council from San Francisco, had representatives of people
helping David So Happy up north where fishing rights were being
denied the tribes. So Happy he had been arrested for catching
salmon. And we showed an old 8mm film about the murder of Anna
Mae Aquash, "Bravehearted Woman" (now long out of circulation).
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This event was pulled
together to try and bring focus and support to various Indian
issues AND to support the struggle at Big Mountain, Az. Actually,
my first published piece for Indians was one I wrote while in
resistance at Big Mountain. The piece was my inside resistance
camp article covering the first deadline for forced relocation,
July 8, 1986, the event at which Ronald Reagan
had threatened to bring in the Nat'l Guard to destroy the lives
and people of Big Mountain. The article was to bring attention
to their struggle, the need for resistors, food, old CB radios
an overall call for the cessation of military occupation of
Indian land. That article ran in the "The Alliance"
out of Portland, Oregon.
HM: Was this around the
time you wrote your book on Anna Mae and what inspired you to
write that book? What triggered it exactly?
antoinette. nora claypoole:
During the 1980's, Louise Benally, a young Dine' resistor to
forced relocation at Big Mountain, decided to name the camp
where we had all often lived in resistance--the land there near
her family hogan--she decided to call the place "Camp Anna
Mae". To this day that is the name for the land there. At the
time I had only seen the old film I mentioned earlier, Brave
Hearted Woman, and didn't know much at all about Annie Mae. So
I asked Louise. And others there at camp, members of the
American Indian Movement (AIM) who had known Anna Mae. I asked
about what happened, who she was exactly and how they thought
she was murdered.
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My naiveté still astounds me. When I tell the story.
Actually believing her old friends would tell me things about
her, her life and her execution. Of course no one said a thing
to me about her. Just, "oh antoinette, she was a brave sister
who helped with the movement. And the feds killed her". Well.
Okay.
That worked for me for a few years. But somewhere in the early
90's, after producing many of John Trudell's Northwest events, hanging out with him on tours and during poetry readings,
something just got inside of me about Annie Mae. I started
asking Trudell
questions about her. I did an interview with him for one of
our events in the Northwest here and I had asked him about
being chairperson of AIM when Anna Mae was murdered. How that
felt to him. How it sure looked like he was someone who might
have been responsible for her death. Even though he was, back
then, someone I called family and a friend, as a writer and
journalist I had to ask the hard questions. His answers were
about how Indians didn't have a hierarchy, that being an AIM
leader didn't mean he had any real say as to what went down. In
that interview he explained the intricacies of the movement at
lengths. Reluctantly, but at length. Still. Triggered is a good word.
You asked what triggered this
book. Even after and during talking with Trudell about all
this. Something was pressing against me like heat before the
desert winds of late summer. I asked more questions of more
people and got less answers. It was becoming apparent,
everywhere I went, that many people still believed--this was the
early 90's-- she was a Federal Agent. An Indian turncoat. A
woman who had betrayed her people. And even though Camp Anna
Mae had her name, many of her old "friends" were still wondering
about whether she was working for the government when she was
murdered.
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Anna
Mae and her husband Nogeeshik Aquash |
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That kind of
injustice is something that had always pressed me to write, create,
and research. So. In looking to honor to Anna Mae's memory, to get the "story straight" I began
the book project. It took 6 years of research, writing and
random, scary expeditions. To bring to page an honoring for
Anna Mae that could give the reader a sense of what was
happening during the 1970's in Indian Country AND offer her a
legacy other than silence or turncoat. For it was clear to me
that she was not an agent and was set-up to look like one by the
U.S. gov't.
What inspired me, then, to do that book you ask? A need, as a
woman, to be certain Anna Mae's story was not lost. Was not
buried with her somewhere east of dreams. That as a woman still
alive I had a responsibility to present some history,
sentiments, poetry and
news articles that would help people seek their own truth about
her commitment to the People. I wrote it for all the people
everywhere who fight for "justice" and pay a price in this world
out of balance. And for the next generation.
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HM: How would you say
this book was received by Indian country?
antoinette nora claypoole: There are many ways to tell a
story. Even a story about how people tasted a story no one
wanted to tell.
In the mid 1990's silence was the mantra of Indian Country about
Annie Mae. How was my effort, my labor of poetic persistence,
my ability to survive death threats which emerged as a result of
the project, how was all that received? Hmm...this is probably
best
explained by those who reviewed it, those who read it then,
read it now, and those who mark time as a cycle spiraling into
infinity.
We are sometimes left with the remnants of what perception does
to time.Still....there were many, many people in the movement who,
back in the day, thanked me for having the courage to say what
others wouldn't. And Anna Mae's family, most notably via her
second cousin Bob Pictou-Branscombe, gave me a nod and thank
you, without which the project would never have gone to print.
At the time I actually never heard any complaints except that
"all that poetry got in the way" and it was, according to one
of her family members (a guy) " a girl's book".
Hmm.....true that.
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Who Would Unbraid Her Hair : the Legend of Annie Mae
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HM: How would
you say your book differs from Steve Hendricks book about
Anna Mae? That is, just from reading excerpts of your first
book, about Anna Mae Aquash, I see that your vision, your
art, like most art, is a form of healing. Through your
truth and poetry. Do not see it as just laying out a legal
argument in a deposition, or a summary proceeding as in some
parts of the Steve Hendricks book. His book seems much more
detached, removed. Colder. My sense is you have a much
deeper connection here. A bond of another sort to these
people. Like you really
care about these people.
antoinette nora claypoole: hmm.... as I admittedly never read
Hendricks book. I have no idea how he came at the topic, but
you must remember mine was written earlier on, 1999, and it
was one of the first efforts to speak her name in print
and ask the hard questions. Perhaps Mr. Hendricks carried
forward with that impulse in his presentation of facts,
perhaps?
And yes John,
there was an organic intention of healing which I imagined
my art, this book, to be.
- I cared
about all these people when I wrote the book. Cared very
deeply. As the book was written before ANY indictments
were handed down, any of my friends could be named as
her murderer, any of HER friends. This is a very
important piece to remember when reading the book. So
yes. I DID care about what happened to all. John
Trudell was family and friend in my life. HE was being
fingered as her murderer. Others I knew and cared about
were possible targets. And in the meantime there was
still moccasin telegraph that she had worked for the
Feds, which I never believed true.
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In many
ways, my desire to write Annie Mae's story was NOT so
much that she was murdered but HOW she was being
forgotten. as I said to you yesterday, as a woman
living in a patriarchy I couldn't let that happen. We
were all having a time of it, poetry, music, resistance
gatherings, ceremonies, but she was dead. At the time I
was writing the book I was deep inside Indian country,
traveled w/Trudell, the kids, did ceremonies, it was a
kind of charmed life. And I was aware that we were all
ABLE to have these beautiful and intense experiences
BECAUSE she was an activist and died trying to implement
freedom of religion, for instance. Very important. The
book was and still is a celebration of her LIFE, not her
murder. and I was writing about it while celebrating my
life. With some of the very same people she had known
and loved.
HM: Didn't you get attacked for writing this book?
antoinette nora claypoole:
No NOT AT ALL.... I did
NOT get attacked for writing the book, though I was often warned by
friends in the Movement to be careful, that the same thing that
happened to Annie Mae could happen to me. That was while I was
working on the project. Once it came into print, I / the book was
honored. Attacks at me and my writing came about 4 years later when
I covered the murder trial of Arlo Looking Cloud for Pacifica
Radio. That is when the slander/libel against me began. After
that, the book was not often mentioned much one way or the other.
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Assimilation by
antoinette nora claypoole |
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HM: How
important were Anna Mae's efforts with gaining this freedom of Religion?
antoinette nora claypoole: As with so much of Indian History, many things changes during the
70's, many humane freedoms were finally reclaimed. All due to the
actions and impulse of the American Indian Movement. Annie Mae was
key figure in the movement, albeit near her end a controversial
one. Still, she was involved in early AIM actions, was at the
takeover of the BIA building in Washington, D.C. Was in resistance
at the Siege of Wounded, was married there by the same man who I
would later meet and have given to me healing ceremonies. Hers was
a synergy which infused the movement, and it was her intent that
her children, the next generation, could be proud to be Indian, be
allowed to pray in the old ways, all ol it. So...in this way she
was very much the matrix of change that would happen later for
Indian People.
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HM: Why did you get
attacked for covering this Looking Cloud trial for Pacifica
Radio?
Did you express a strong opinion of some sort?
antoinette nora claypoole:
Hmm....I often wondered what happened, truly. Was totally blind
sighted by the events, the death threats and random slander rants
against me at that time.
It seems to me that the attacks came because I wasn't mantra
chanting the party line.
That is, most everyone in Indian Country was glad to have the
indictments against Looking Cloud and John Graham happening. They
looked at it as some kind of "hurray, we get resolve". Many
people looked at the arrests and trial, understandable, as a way to
complete a painful chapter in Indian History--the murder of Annie
Mae. But in my mind they had already tried, sentenced and executed
(figuratively) these two men and I wasn't so convinced that a lynch
mob was where I wanted to hang out. Mainly because I hadn't seen any
evidence that convinced me they were her killers.
The entire case against them seemed to rely only on hearsay---he
said she said he wanted
to say she was dead by what he said about....etc etc.
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So. When I covered
the trial in Rapid City-- as a freelancer for KPFK, Los Angeles-- it
was already known in Indian Country that I was NOT applauding the
dog and pony show which was about to take front and center in our
lives. My daily coverage of the trial DID include interviews with
Russell Means, Vernon Bellecourt amongst others, an attempt to get
varied perspectives out there. Have "opposing camps" represented.
At the time Bellecourt was trying to help Graham and Looking Cloud,
believed in their innocence.
Means was in another camp. My coverage attempted to give listeners
a whole canvas of info. That in itself made it clear to those in
Indian Country who once celebrated my work and efforts that I wasn't
going into an unequivocal place of believing the murderers had "been
found". It was and still is my role to keep people awake to asking
themselves what they believe truth is and not be lead by any one
dictate.
Did I express a strong opinion of some kind, you ask?
Perhaps it was simply that I made it clear that I did not
necessarily believe the men indicted had actually killed Annie Mae.
" They might have, they may not have" was the matrix of my coverage
and commentary.
Further, I explained I thought the government was simply putting AIM
on trial, saying "this is what can happen to you if you join a
radical movement" to the next generation of activists. Overall, at
the time I made it clear that I wanted to see evidence, of which
there was only hearsay. Not enough for me to jump into the mob
mentality which was emerging.
This is really the only way I have ever been able to explain to
myself why, out of the midday winter sky, this flare of toxic rants
landed on my literary map.
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HM:
What are your thoughts on the upcoming John Graham trial
and thoughts on Robert Robideau's views for example on Anna Mae?
antoinette nora
claypoole: This case, these trials and hearings are all complex and stem
from the denial by the Federal Gov't to own their role in
sending in agents to AIM and making Annie Mae looking like a
snitch, a turncoat. Everything else is what it is.
Complex. Creepy. Destructive. Divisive. Sad and despicable.
Still, overall, it is not my place to really say how this will
play out and why. Anna Mae was murdered and will we ever know
the truth about what went down? Perhaps not. There are people
of course who differ with Robideau's perspective, but then there
are
people who differ with another and at different times they stop
differing and agree. To differ again. As I say, It is complex
and best left to those who were inside those last days of her
life
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There are many stories are out there regarding the
circumstances of her last few months in the Movement. For
instance, I have always that it important for people to know
that early on in my research (mid 1990's) I did speak with more
than person who claimed to
have seen and talked with Annie Mae over Christmas, 1975. That
directly contradicts all the things said by the U. S. Attorney,
Robideau and ALL who claim she was murdered on Dec. 12, 1975 by
Graham and Looking Cloud, with Theda Clark also present. Simply
stated, there were, before the indictments, people who put
Annie Mae alive AFTER the supposed murder date. Even John Trudell in an interview around 2003 or 04 says she was murdered
in January 1976. What does this mean? I can't tell you. I
only know that a lot of people, including Bob Robideau, have done
their best to try to bring resolve to this case. That also
includes some of Graham's supporters who continue to try to find
folks who can talk about their visits with Annie Mae at
Christmastime, 12 days after she was supposedly executed.
So, you can see, there are varied stories about how true any of
these indictments and testimonies are against Graham.
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Simply, over the years I write and present info so people can
make up their own minds about what they think truth is in all
this. That has been my goal all along. And of course, to
remember a woman who people had nearly forgotten.
HM: Who do you think killed her?
antoinette nora
claypoole: Who killed Annie Mae is something known by the people
who did it. Maybe this is the place where we get to listen to
Annie Mae about what
was happening right before she went underground, disappeared,
and wouldn't be seen by many again.
Here, from a letter Annie Mae
wrote in jail, Vancouver, Wa. Nov. 1975......
an excerpt......
" ...I am writing to you from the Vancouver, Washington jail but
will be transferred to South Dakota within the next day or so to
face trial there. Monday, the 24th of November is the big day.
Contact Rapid City and you can find out how I made out and where
I will be sent (Ha, Ha) then write to me. Matheline--I gave my
silver ring to our attorney "Beverly Axelrod" to give to you.
You are to deliver it to John. She
^(here an arrow pointing to the name Beverly) went back to San
Francisco where she lives but I gave her your number. My health
is perfect, my moral and spirit are even more than perfect. I've
become stronger than ever. Kamook and I are in the same cell and
that's makes it worthwhile.
The whole incident happened because of informer A & B as the FBI
refer to them in their report--which we saw yesterday--from the
Seattle area--Informer A has informed on at least 100 incidents
already and Informer B on 20 occasions. I hope the fuckers wake
up some morning missing their jewels (depending on whether
they're male or female) I'll have the lawyer send you the
detailed report. I am going to drop my court appointed lawyer in
Pierre and have my trial consolidated with Dino's and Nilak's.
How did you like my new name? (Naguset Eask).It means Sun Woman.
They asked my birthdate and I said In the Spring moon in the
year 1945-They kinna thought I was obnoxious. What a redneck
town we were arrested at--They thought Indians were reincarnated
that nite (savage style of course)....... "
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Anna Mae and Nogeeshik Aquash |
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This is from a handwritten letter which came to me from what I
believe to reliable source. It circulates somewhat widely in
Indian Country these days, and is something none of Annie Mae's
family members has denied is her handwriting.
It brings the idea of informants front and center and still
makes me wonder if they still walk around us, threaded through
the whole brutal story.
We can remember the
story of her second husband, Nogeeshik Aquash.
(1945-1989?) who died mysteriously after phoning his nephew with
news "I figured out
who killed Annie Mae". Nogeeshik was in a wheelchair, paraplegic.
Spent everyday after her death searching for the answer. He
was run off the road on one of his research missions. Terrible car
accident, the wheelchair came after. Nogeeshik finally felt he had
found his wife's killers he was found dead the next morning. A
horrible fire in his home. Being parapglegic, he couldn't get out of
the fire. So the story goes.
Who killed her? Maybe better asked, who gets killed trying to
find out who wanted to
kill her...."
Overall, there is the reality that those who really want the truth
pay harshly, a sacrifice on the
altar of seeking occurs. Was it Graham and Looking Cloud? I just
can't say. For certain. One way or the other.
The idea of informants still haunts me. And I only imagine resolve
for
those she loved and those who lost her love.
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HM: Can you please tell me about this Taos project you
have been working on? What it is about. What inspired
this? Who is a part of it?
antoinette nora
claypoole: This was a small project which I began in 2003, grew
and is still a work in progress. We had some
publication delays and in this some wild revitalization
has emerged. La Puerta, Taos is very close to my
heart as it celebrates the art and people of a town
which was very welcoming and generous to me at a time in
my life when community and art were essential to my
survival. But then, when aren't those elements pranna,
right?
This project, is then to simply to honor the writers and
artists of Taos, New Mexico, the history of becoming an art colony early in the last century and overall an
attempt to share with readers how land and sky converge
there to create something in humans
which just doesn't exist everywhere. An alchemy of
synchronicites, an elixir of sky doctoring the senses.
There is alchemy which is manifest near Taos Mountain
and the project began as a way to celebrate these
realities. Woven throughout is the fact
that really, because of the persistence and lives of
Tewa (Taos Pueblo Indians) there IS
this place where art is created with ease and
resonance between all beings. The haiku
of it is, the project is a biography of place.
People included? Interviews with Robert Mirabal, Tewa,
John Nichols, writer times ten,
foreword by Barbara Waters, writer and wife of Frank
Waters, great artwork/photography by
local Taos artists including Jaap Vanderplas, Anita
Rodriguez, Lenny Foster and Gail Russell. All of these and
more gave me work, time, sky to infuse into the book.
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-
- "This is a ball
off destruction.
- This coming of
United States tried to
- end the lives of a
proud people
- A proud people. A
PROUD culture.
- It didn't happen.
- Taos Pueblo is
still standing."
John Suazo, Tiwa
- © Lenny
Foster
CONTINUE TO PART 2
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