Joe Medicine Crow - shining just beyond the common man's sight

I read the story of the death of Joe Medicine Crow with tears in my eyes. I cannot tell you why......or maybe I can. Medicine Crow represents something. Or he should. 

Here are five thoughts that floated through my mind as I read his story.

1. Joe Medicine Crow represents the last of a particular stripe of man. He was the last man in his tribe to successfully complete the requirements to become a war chief of his tribe. There are specific requirements to become the chief and Joe, without intending to do so in some instances, completed them all. From the article, 

"During World War II, when he was a scout for the 103rd Infantry in Europe, he strode into battle wearing war paint beneath his uniform and a yellow eagle feather inside his helmet. So armed, he led a mission through German lines to procure ammunition. He helped capture a German village and disarmed — but didn’t kill — an enemy soldier. And, in the minutes before a planned attack, he set off a stampede of 50 horses from a Nazi stable, singing a traditional Crow honor song as he rode away."

Maybe he meant to complete the requirements, or maybe, those requirements were so deeply ingrained; were so much a part of who he was, that completing them was inevitable? How many more like him are there? How many of us have who we are so deeply engraved into our DNA? How much has our approach to Native culture robbed us of access to that strength and those character traits?

Medicine Crow was the last of a certain kind of man and he was our last bridge to a particular tradition. He was a war chief, a writer and an activist and while there are others who are each of these, even some who are two of these, there are no more who are all of these in his tribe, and quite possibly, in any tribe.

2. Joe Medicine Crow represents the distance we have yet to travel between the Trail of Tears and equality. Bear in mind that it was only 7 years ago that he was recognized with a Medal of Honor for his lifetime's worth of activism, storytelling, and serving as griot for his tradition and his people. His death serves as a stark reminder of how far we have yet to go to arrive at a place of true equality and just treatment because.....

3. In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died, we had the images and events of the Oceti Sakowin Camp and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died, we saw dogs and hoses turned on peaceful Native protesters (water protectors) in the dead of winter.

Water protectors drenched by water cannons @ Standing Rock
Stephanie Keith / Reuters

4. In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died, we have seen flagrant desecration of sacred land and the trampling of treaty rights in the quest for profit.

5. In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died the past served once again, as prologue.

Look closely at yourself America. Do you like what you see?

Five hundred+ years removed from Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of America, one might hope that Native Americans - Joe Medicine Crow's people - would finally be seen and respected as fully American. And yet, we are still not there yet.

Medicine Crow's death signals the end of an era as such deaths always do. His death also signifies that the new era has yet to begin...or perhaps it has, just beyond our view? Perhaps men like Gyasi Ross and David Archambault II are made in the same tradition and are doing similar work? Perhaps there are plenty of others whose names we (I) do not yet know?

What we do know is that US history is yet to turn the corner....a corner that Medicine Crow and men and women like him tried to bring us to. US history is yet to come to terms with its claim that "All men are created equal" or "with liberty and justice for all". 'All' not some, not some are more equal than others, but all. Equal. No provisos. 

The 102 years that Crow lived may have been enough to build railroads, an interstate system, the institutions of 'democracy', an internet, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter and myriad multinational businesses and industries and the largest economy on the planet, and yet it was not quite enough time for America to live out its creed; for Native people to realize all the rights of citizenship. Some things take longer than others I guess. How how long exactly is equality gonna take? 102 years and counting. 500 years and counting. 

The life of Joe Medicine Crow, is a love song no, a life song of and to his nation, to all nations and especially to this one that still has not quite got it. 

In spite of every dishonorable thing done to him personally or to his people generally, he fought for this country….the country of dogs and water cannons in mid-winter 2016. More than a hundred years after his birth, this is still the nation of dogs and the water cannons. 

In 2016, we said fare-thee-well to an inordinate number of 'stars'. But what is stardom? With all due respect to the famous, Medicine Crow's death is a clear reminder that some of our brightest stars have shone and burned out just beyond the common man's sight. 

May his spirit travel safely on.

Lactose policing

In a year when 573 (as of August 7th) people have been shot and killed by the police, some of those live on social media, many in interactions with police that should never have ended in death, the Boston PD has decided that the way forward is through ice cream policing. 

The powers that be in Boston have determined that the best approach to the intractable problem that is Black and brown fear of police; Black and brown justifiable distrust of police and state actors; Black and brown complaints about extra-judicial executions and disparate weight and impact of current policing is to spend $89,000 on an ice cream truck. If it weren't objectionable as all hell, it would be funny. 

I'm trying to find out what actual steps police departments are taking around the country but the information - if there is any - is hard to come by. Let's just say this: when I do a basic Google search for "steps taken by the Boston PD to improve community relations", the first mention of Boston specifically is the story about the ice cream truck. That's it. There's nothing about the consultant they've hired to assist them in reviewing their use of force policy (cuz they ain't hired one); nothing about their community meetings with leaders (maybe they've had some but they ain't in the University of Google's listing); nothing about their attempts to work with an independent prosecutor to outline terms and conditions for investigation of complaints against officers (again, it may have occurred and just not made the news..........yeah, right). But the truck? That's in there. 

They've plopped down $89,000 for an ice cream truck. Rather than spend $15,000 (just guessing) on a consultant who can help them figure out how to reach out to the community in an authentic way, this is what they do with taxpayers dollars. My guess is that BPD will have to spend far more than that settling claims against police officers, this year alone. But what do I know? History seems to suggest that I might be right but hey, ice cream right? Yay! Butter pecan for me!

Meanwhile, out in the real world where efforts are being made to not shoot first ask questions later, Minneapolis PD has been measuring 'positive contacts' between citizens and officers, absent the use of the grating music of an ice-cream truck. According to city mayor Betsy Hodges, "This work of building community trust has a long-term deterrent effect on violence. The fact that we measure it at all is a sign of change in how we approach policing in Minneapolis." (emphasis mine) Have they succeeded in eliminating all negative interactions? Of  course not, but at least they're doing something reasonable, responsible and measurable. Boston on the other hand, ice cream.

I could probably wax on about the dangers of this policy, of the damage it causes to pretend to give a crap about the people you police only to later turn around and shoot 'em dead without so much as a by your leave, but I won't. My memo to Boston PD is simple: keep your ice cream. I'm lactose (and police abuse) intolerant. Ice cream is not about to mollify me or anyone else I imagine. 

And then there's this, hug diplomacy bull cacalaca. I can't even with this rubbish today. I can't. Not today Satan. Not today. Not tomorrow either.