Home Again

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

Four days gone. 

That's not unusual. She disappears for days, weeks, months at a time. 

Her appearances are more frequent in winter, of course. And then, too, at times like last week, when she's working — then I expected her to return, and she did. Otherwise, I expect to see her only when I see her.

There are two, actually, a mated pair, but the female is the larger of the two. Their home is here, where they know they're welcome — except, of course, on those occasions when they venture too near the ravens' nest. The giant corvids harry them until they retreat to a safe distance, never farther than across the road. When they're here, though, we waste no worry on the chickens. The red-tails seem to have a clear grasp of what constitutes acceptable prey in this place.

But I haven't seen her for four days, and had no expectation of it today, either. 

Wings got up this morning, looked out the window, nodded toward the northwest, said, "There's your friend. In the tree." 

I stepped outside to look. Sure enough, she was there in the upper branches.

Holding my breath, as though that would somehow make her stay, I retrieved the camera, went back outside. Still there. Focus. Shoot. Over and over.

I could see her there, shifting on the branch, looking around. Hoping against hope that I wouldn't scare her off.

Thirteen shots. I didn't know what I had until I uploaded them. She looked right for me; then left; then swiveled her head to look squarely at me. That's a first. Oh, she's watched me directly as I work, but never any effort to make eye contact before, even through a camera lens.

The sun at perfect angles. Ochre and sepia bars on her tail, diamond patterns glowing in the morning light.

A gift, an offering seemingly of friendship.

She stayed there until I was finished. When I came indoors, I asked Wings whether she was still there. 

"No. She flew away."

The summer my father walked on, work required me to travel all over the state. It was the summer of golden eagles: the one and only time in my life that they seemingly flew with me everywhere, beginning the day after his death. Before and since, there have been other birds: my namesake, an occasional bald eagle, magpie fledglings, even tiny hummingbirds. A couple of years, a widowed Cooper's hawk mourning her mate.

The red-tails have come and gone as they will, seemingly at home here, but not particularly linked to us. They've appeared occasionally in the warmer months, swooping overhead in a lazy gyre, playing on the currents, following along as I go about my work in the apparent hope that I will acknowledge their presence. I always do.

But this is new, this visitation.

Now, it seems less like a visit, and more like an old friend, a relative, returning home. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

A Visit From a Friend

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

It snowed for 32 hours straight.

It ceased for about three hours, then resumed for a while; stopped again, and now a light and feathery dusting is again falling from the sky.

It's been a strange two days here: a deep quiet, not quite a void of sound, but a sense that all noise has been enveloped so thoroughly that its voice can simply no longer be heard.

The horses and dogs have loved it, alternating between episodes of running through the drifts for the sheer joy of it and resting silently, as though unwilling to disturb the earth's mute watch.

The birds are a bit less enamored of it, the chickens mostly content to stay in their free-range coop, the wild birds simply grateful for the contents of the feeder.

One, however, paid us a visit, albeit from a distance: Gegek, Hawk. In this case, a Red-Tail; from appearances, the female of our pair, who is the larger of the two. Their nest seems to be in the stand of trees across the road, near where she sits in the photo above, but they do spend time here on our land, hunting prey among the chamisa and sage. One of them flew overhead a few days ago, harried by ravens protecting their nest on our side of the highway.

She sat there watching me, mucking out the horses' pens in a near-foot of snow. I went to get the camera, hoping she wouldn't decide to leave. I needn't have worried; she stayed in place for me to get a dozen shots, then remained while I finished my work.

Still. Immovable. 

As though she sat her own vigil atop the outstretched arms of the ancient wooden guardian, beneath a gray and lowering sky.

In some cultures, they are escorts.

Here, she's a friend.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Indian Child Removal: New Developments in South Dakota

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Yesterday, I cross-posted my piece from a year ago on South Dakota's practice of stealing Indian children and placing them in white foster "care" situations" in the service of racism and financial profit.  Despite being more than a year old, the piece tragically is not outdated in the least.  That said, there are new developments, so I reposted it primarily to provide the backstory for anyone not yet familiar with it.

On Monday, February 3, four separate American Indian groups formally asked the Justice Department to investigate the public scandal that is the so-called "child welfare" (i.e., removal, foster care placement, and adoption) in Indian Country.  The four groups are the National Congress of American Indians [NCAI], the Native American Rights Fund [NARF], the National Indian Child Welfare Association [NICWA], and the Association on American Indian AffairS [AAIA]. 

The request, delivered via letter, was typically polite but also pointed:

[T]he groups wrote that a lack of federal oversight had led to Indian children being improperly placed with non-Indian families by child welfare workers and that tribal representatives were too often left out of custody proceedings. They also accused adoption agencies of sometimes ignoring the tribal membership of children in their care. 

“Although these civil rights violations are well-known and commonplace, they continue to go unchecked and unexamined[.]”

Indian Child Removal: Racism, "Perverse Financial Incentives," and Willful Violation of the ICWA

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Author's Note:  This post first appeared at Daily Kos on February 2, 2013.  It is cross-posted here with very minor edits.

On January 31, 2013, the Lakota People's Law Project submitted a report to Congress documenting allegations first reported via an NPR investigation in 2011: that South Dakota's state child welfare officials were stealing Indian children from their homes and families and placing them in white foster care - in part for "perverse financial incentives," and all in direct and repeated violation of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act [ICWA].

At the time the NPR story was released (October, 2011), Meteor Blades wrote a brutal, soul-searing report here at Daily Kos, documenting both the current outrages and this country's long and terrible history of stealing Indian children. In it, he made the point that what people regard as "history" isn't even past, telling the story of Kossack Carter Camp. In the diary and comments are other stories from other Indian families: those of Meteor Blades, of navajo, of myself, of Wings. Carter and Wings are both survivors of such programs themselves.

But in 2011, we could hope that the worst abuses were at least now only in our pasts.

In 2011, we had no idea how bad it still is.

A Note On What's to Come: More on Our Stolen Children

Photo copyright Ajijaakwe, 2014; all rights reserved.

Just a quick heads-up about some of the content that will be appearing here in the days and weeks to come.

One set of topics I plan to cover in depth involves the myriad forms of cultural genocide still being practiced against our peoples.  That includes everything from environmental dangers like the Keystone XL pipeline to the theft and misuse of our cultural ways to the literal stealing of our futures by way of our children.

I've written on most of these (and many other related) topics over the years at Daily Kos. I'll be cross-posting those pieces here, often — as will happen today — by way of providing context for what's to come.

Just over a year ago, I posted a diary there about the state of South Dakota's insidious practice of stealing Lakota children from the families and cultures, in the service of both racism and profit.  This story is in the news again, as the tribes in that state continue to fight for their children — and thus their very future existence.  I'll be cross-posting that piece here today as a launching point; I'll follow up with new information in the coming days, weeks, and months.

So if it looks familiar to you, it probably is, but don't be put off by last year's date.  These evils are ongoing, and they need our continued pressure to bring them to a halt.  and I'll be coming to you for help with that.

Chi miigwech.

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