KANSAS GOVERNOR GRAVES WAS WARNED BY PARENTS

AND STILL REFUSED TO STEP IN
BEFORE RACE HATE CRIMES
TOOK VICTIMS

A letter to Kansas Governor Bill Graves, May 6, 1999

FROM: Clem Iron Wing, Wichita Matthew Richter, McPherson

May 5, 1999

TO: Governor, Bill Graves State Capitol, 2nd Floor Topeka, Kansas 66612-1590

 

Governor Graves,

Enclosed you will find Associated Press and news stories; STUDENTS ARRESTED AT LITTLE RIVER KANSAS SCHOOL FOR CRIMINAL THREATS AGAINST NATIVE AMERICAN'S FAMILY

April 22, 1999, LYONS KANSAS- Rice County Attorney, Matt Treaster, announced the arrests of two Little River High School students who sent race hate, rape and criminal threats in multiple messages to a Native American McPherson man and his family from inside the high school. The threats were made following Matthew Richter's letter to the editor of the McPherson Sentinel on February 9, questioning the school's use of the term "redskin". Richter and Native American activists asking for talks with educators had been repeatedly denied meetings with any adults working for Little River Unified School District 444.

HOW KANSAS GOVERNOR GRAVES ADDRESSED THE CONCERNS OF NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVISTS

Two years previously, in a May 1997 letter, parents and activists Matthew Richter and Clem Iron Wing had nicely asked Governor Graves to step in with mediation, education and sensitizing about Native American religious symbols and culture:

"Sir, would you please provide some help in this difficult and complex problem that is edging toward a series of very unpleasant public confrontations?"

Being a politician, Governor Graves responded the following month that he had no time for difficult issues:

"I believe the best solution to the potential for abuse of native American religious symbols is through local community education. This could take the form of volunteers like yourself who would be willing to take the time to make a presentation to local area schools."

In simple language, Governor you told us to go out and you do the educating and don't expect any help from the Governor's office or the educational system, just do the best you can on your own.

GOVERNOR GRAVES WAS WARNED AND REFUSED TO STEP IN BEFORE RACE HATE CRIMES TOOK VICTIMS

Governor Graves, you were shown the warning signs of a crime but you did nothing. You brought about these hate crimes against this Native American family and you are responsible for failing to stop the circumstances that brought the arrest of these two high school students. This should never have happened because you were asked to intervene well before these threats to rape and attack a Native American's family in their home were ever made. You were given the warning signs of criminal threats to come from Kansas High schools by parents yet you said go ahead and know you won't get any assistance from Bill Graves.

READ THE QUOTES OF REDSKIN

You , Mr. Governor, said to Native Americans that "redskin" is just fine to use to refer to Native Americans even when you knew it is a hate name. Mr. Governor, here is the proof of the meaning of this race hate name "redskin" used against Native Americans in this country:

The redskinned Indians are naturally lazy and vicious, melancholic, cowardly, and in general a lying, shiftless, people. Their marriages are not a sacrament but a sacrilege. They are idolatrous, libidinous, and commit sodomy. Their chief desire is to eat, drink, worship heathen idols, and commit bestial obscenities. What could one expect from a people whose skulls are so thick and hard that the Spaniards had to take care in fighting not to strike on the head lest their swords be blunted?" -Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes 16th Century

"Hunting redskins became for the time being a popular sport in New England, especially since prisoners were worth good money, and the personal danger to the hunters was now very slight." -English colonist in a personal letter to a friend

If you wish to commit political suicide publicly read these quotes or any quote from REDSKINS: A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME found on American Comments Web Magazine. Then tell Native Americans in your State of Kansas this is a word that you approve of to be used against them. Even you as a politician, who does not care for the warning signs of violence and only desires to have the victim, would say that this word is not acceptable in this day and age.

You know this name is wrong, your silence is that of a person who wishes to endanger, not only the Native American child, but all children. Activists across this country are educating about the true Native American history while the state of Kansas, with your blessing because of your silence, is giving a bigot's education with a racist's name.

Listen to us again and better this time. Schools are now a violent place with guns where children prepare for the possibility of death. Everyone is looking for the warning signs of disaster. When people come to you with victims, Mr. Governor, that is a warning sign. Deny it or act upon it. You set up the crimes in Little River and Wichita Public schools with your silence and the public knows where you stand now. Will the public understand the bigotry of your education or will they hear you addressing this issue and show your concern, not only for the Native American in your constituency but for all children? Will you end the taking of victims in a public school battlefield by eliminating a hate name in a racially hostile educational system?

A BATTLE FIELD IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Here is a sampling of the mail we have received from students at Little River, a "redskins" mascot school. Read these letters, read the race hate in them, this is what is happening in your public schools in Kansas, a place where guns and weapons are in the hands of children. A place where violence is the child's answer to conflict. Each of these letters comes from a different student at Little River who wrote to us at our homes in McPherson and Wichita Kansas. Because you and the adult educators failed to address the use of a hate term in public schools you left it to students. You have placed children in the front as your shields.

**********************

"I hope you die you liberal cult bastard. we sure do hate indians I wonder if you have any injun blood in you. by the way we are going to rape your wife, but that shouldn't bother you since you're an indian and you guys do that sort of thing all the time.

p.s. I love you and have a bag ready to put over your wife's head when I fuck the shit out of her.

Feb. 9, 1999

**********************

Hey guy,

How many Native Americans are there here that are going to sleep every night crying because Little river used the name Redskins to describe their team. How many suicides have there been? How many people have been beat up because of it? None plain and simple. I am sorry but you are making a big issue out of nothing and I wish you would find a better use for your, and my time.

February 10, 1999

*************

Consider this, you have caused more hatred and dislike of Native Americans in this community with your letter than the name "Redskins" has in the past 90 years.

Feb. 15, 1999

*********

"Why do you feel you need to pick on the redskins. You know you bitching about our redskin mascot isn't going to change a thing although you feel you need to let the public know what mr. daugherty has to say. I think you have cow dung for brains. I just found out were you lived Sunday February 14. I get my messenger boys and my chief to come and shoot arrows at your house. do you have any animals. Don't be surprised if they aren't there if you wake up this next morning. We are planning on being there this Friday night. We will show up around 1:00am. Have you ever had yo ass kicked nigga'. Me and injun joe is going to whoop it up on yo' ass. How's about you put this in the news paper dummy."

Feb 17, 1999 from Little River Student

**************

We are sick of your hate crimes against our school and mascot. Your hippie liberal tactics are nothing more than humorous to us. If you had half a brain you would see that we sport the Redskin logo with pride, and we will never change it, regardless what some crazy, hippie liberal thinks or says about it. Redskins forever."

Feb. 10, 1999

********

"I've overread all of your crap and I think you are full of it. You die and go to the hot underground hole. Are you an indian?

Feb 11, 1999

********

Do any of these responses sound like their governor or educators are providing the historical facts of this hate name to students? Read these letters, read the race hate in them. Read the charges against Little River High School students who are being prosecuted by the Rice County Attorney.

Now tell the public you have no understanding that there is a battle ground in your public schools. It is a battle ground because neither you, Governor Graves, nor school educators have come forward with the facts of history to show why Native Americans object to being called a race hate name of 500 years. None of you has come forward to say that we have no place and no right to object to being called by a race hate name. You have placed children in the front as your shields.

They commonly claim, "We sport the Redskin logo with pride". What kind of pride do you see here? The pride of educated students with the facts behind them that understand Native Americans and their history or the pride of a bigoted and hateful thought process against Native Americans? What is one of these students going to do when they meet a Native American in the work place or in their community? Call them a redskin, make sure they become a "redskin" tell them to get out and if they refuse, threaten them with rape and attack? Ridicule, isolate and segregate them? Do students who make statements defending "redskin" use facts provided by their educational system or do they use a false image of Native Americans and the historical techniques of hateful intimidation of a minority to maintain the lies?

Little River is not the only school using this hate name which has a battle ground for student violence. This is happening at Wichita North High School:

"SO STOP PISSING AND MOANING! If you want to really hate the "big, bad, white man," you can go back to living in cliff dwellings and pueblos and get out of your air-conditioned homes with cable. My school mascot was almost changed this year, and I'm sick of people crying for a cause just to get their faces on the news. And another thing... Leave North High alone. No one at North killed a damn Indian. We don't promote ethnic hatred. We go to school, we learn, we are happy. Leave us alone. If you don't like our mascot, then don't send your kids there. -North High School student letter, August 1997

I am not a Native American, in fact I may have had ancestors that may have killed many natives at the Battle of Wounded knee. I probibly had ancestors that said the name "Redskin" in a demening and durogatory way. No one (that I am aware of) from North high is offended- if there is someone- I hope that he or she speaks up. If you don't like the Mascot- its simple- Don't go here- Wichita North High Student August, 1997

These are the statements of students who aggressively seek out and isolate Native Americans who know their people's history and object to the use of a hate name at North High School. These students hunt them down and tell them to get out. What do you think the chances a Native American student who protests being identified with a hate name has of getting into a violent incident at North High school? Would you send your daughter there? Look at North High's record on violence. Look at the fact that they took a gun away from a student in January this year. How many other guns and knives are there? You can be sure the weapons are there. The threats telling Native Americans and their supporters to get out are there. What if the Native American child who was taken out of that school had been attending classes there and spoke out against that hate name? Does he have a chance of being threatened, attacked shot, stabbed or killed? Does he have any hope of being treated with dignity by people who attended a "redskin" mascot school? What are the chances that students like these who wrote our children these threats are going to mix into the diverse world outside their school in a healthy and productive way?

NATIVE AMERICANS ARE EVERYONE'S NEIGHBORS

What you have is the modern day era. Native Americans are not penned up in reservations and boarding schools as they once were required to be when these mascots started. They have entered the American cities and countryside as the survivors of an ethnic cleansing called the Red Holocaust. It is the dawn of the 21st century where Native families meet and interact with the mainstream persons everyday. The time is here when America's children must leave their schools knowing how to get along with their neighbors. They must have the benefit of the facts of Native American history shown to them in the educational setting and they must come to understand how racism starts and how it takes victims. Are they getting those facts or are the getting a bigoted view of another race and culture which leads to race hate threats, criminal behavior and to violence?

Everywhere you will meet Native Americans and citizens of all creeds who know their people's history and the hateful meaning of the names which Native Americans have been stereotyped by. They are asking for dignity for the Native American dead. They are asking for the truth of America's history and asking for recognition and reconciliation of the record of ethnic cleansing. You will find non Native people who claim to have never heard of this history or the idea that Native Americans were hunted like animals in their own country. These are so called educated people who hold graduation certificates from Kansas schools. They did, however learn a bigot's perspective. They deny this history and its effects when encountering Native Americans in their communities, schools and work places. What will these mainstream adult/children do? Have schools prepared them for healthy lives in which they interact positively with others? How much disruption comes from a bigot in the workplace who was raised in a Kansas "Indian" mascot school?

SCHOOLS BUILT THE BATTLE GROUND: GOVERNOR GRAVES ENCOURAGES IT

What is here is the battle ground into which the Native American activist places the demand for dignity of his people before the school systems. Here are the warning signs of violence from a battle in progress. There are already victims being taken and you, Governor Graves, ignored the warning signs. They were told to you in plenty of time to stop the victimization's. When will you address the race hate against Native Americans in public schools? Why are these children who are making threats and ignorant statements placed out into the community by the schools instead of being provided with facts and understanding of the Native American's history and the words which were used to exterminate them?

We have asked for your help and intervention. Do you need victims who are threatened, attacked or dead? How far are you willing to let this battle go before you step in with the tools of education against the ignorance?

GIVEN WARNING, THE GOVERNOR REFUSED TO ACT: THESE ARE YOUR VICTIMS

You see the recent killings of students in Littleton Colorado, and in a Canadian school system, their governors share the hardship of dealing with bodies of children and the explanation for the deaths of these victims in the schools under their responsibility. They have everyone knocking on their door asking questions. They must account for not getting out the message to educators to take a hard look at the educational system, pointing out what is wrong with this system and solving it. You, Governor Graves, on the other hand, have had many warnings that there is something wrong on this mascot issue and still refused to act.

As we have said you have the victims at McPherson and students arrested in Little River. Right now you have a victim in Wichita who is being persecuted because of this mascot issue. Is it your hope, that if you remain silent one of these victims may be pushed over the edge and then you will have the situation where notoriety will get your name across this country? I don't think you would like the kind of name that shows you knew of this battleground in the school system and let it take victim after victim. I don't think you would want the name of a Kansas governor who knew that a hate name existed in his State where he was sworn to protect all inhabitants with equality and concern and still let it take victims. But, as of this writing you have proved your bigoted attitude, it is proven you do have the victims. They are white and they are Native American.

We sent you the wake up call and asked you to look at the warning signs. However, victims are the politicians dream. Does the Governor feel warning signs do not have the interest of the public where victims have the interest of the public and can talk about what happened to them? Are there enough victims and you can take up the warning signs or do you need more victims to have enough victims? There are other families who are victims and we can give them to you too.

What do you have to say here, Mr. Governor? Do you want live victims or do you want dead victims? Live victims clearly indicate that there is something wrong. Live victims have a tendency to tell you what is wrong. Dead victims have no one to tell you what went wrong. When you start listening to the live victims today you may be able to understand how to stop the victimizing of other people before you have to deal with dead victims.

Why did these two children in Little River write these letters? It is your bigoted attitude along with educational system's bigoted attitude. Why do these victims in McPherson feel insecure and threatened? It is because of your bigotry and lack of concern and of course that of the educational system. Why is there a child in Wichita Kansas who has been shuffled out of the school in his own community because he is not a "redskin"? Why is there a child who had to attend your school system and after repeated warnings had to fight for the dignity of his own Naive American name? What is the attitude of this young person who faces this educational system that shuts him out and mocks him? Answer that one Mr. Governor.

Is that the way the educational system should view children by isolating them and putting them in a category of entertainment to be mocked and ridiculed? How long must this child take the so called "teasing" by the school system? What happens when the child decides to stop taking that teasing?

If the child drops out from that educational system then you don't have to deal with it and he just becomes another statistic. What happens if that child decides to take another route and decides to fight back? Governor, people like you, like to blame the parents. Now you have been confronted by a parent who has felt that same ridicule that you and your educational systems have allowed to exist and asked you to stop it. We see the warning signs. We worry every day. We try to teach our children the right way while doing battle against a political and education system that doesn't care about them, their feelings and emotions or their dignity. They want to get our children out of sight.

If I were to ridicule your children all their life Governor, how do you think they would feel? Your educational system has been ridiculing my child, your political system has been ridiculing my child all his life. We know your educational system and your politics are bigoted. I can sit with you and a reporter, show your bigotry and show the school's bigotry. This is very simply done by showing the facts of what happened in this country ever since the coming of the white man.

I went to your reservation Catholic schools. I went through the ridicule of my name. I have lived with that anger inside of me and I have learned to deal with it. My son is learning to live with that anger in side of him and learning to deal with it. What happens when a child does not have the tools of living with that bigotry in your school system? Those are the children of another race and culture that are getting pushed over the edge. Read the threats and read of the arrests of the children in Little River and you can see how they responded to learning about the "redskin" name from quotes of famous people for the first time.

They finally found out why there is a problem with this name. They did not hear those quotations from their teachers because they were innocently indoctrinated into the concept of bigotry from a young age. They did not lash out at the authority figures who brainwashed them for so long, they lashed out at the Native Americans who object to these hate names and showed them the facts of why. They see the end of a hate name, the bigotry they were taught and the shame of being drawn into using it by the educators they are supposed to trust.

Governor, you could save a lot of children the hardships of a bigoted educational system and the uncaring attitude of your governor's office shown so far, by addressing this issue. No longer can anyone lay the blame on the parents for not getting involved for here we are again showing you the warning signs and now more of the victims. I am a parent and I have explained to you in the simplest words, one hell of a warning sign that we all have to deal with. You want to know why children don't respect life? It's not life they don't respect, it's people like you and educators who abuse them that they don't respect.

NORTH HIGH SCHOOL "REDSKINS" ADMINISTRATORS SACRIFICE A CHILD

My son was supposed to go to Wichita North High. That is our district where we own our home, elect our board representee and pay taxes. This is the school where they have taken guns from children in the halls. This is the school where we got the threatening letters from students saying. "It's simple, don't send your child here."

I went to the school and this is the question I asked the principal, "Why should a child respect you or these teachers when you wear sweat shirts that say, 'Once a redskin, always a redskin'?" That term refers to the hateful history of that name and how it was used for 500 years to exterminate the ancestors of my child. It is a hateful derogatory name.

That principal said, "I know Native Americans understand the meaning of that name. I know that it is derogatory because I have seen the history of that name and I know just as well as you do but I only work for the school system. If I want to keep my job, because I am a minority, then I don't rock the boat. Sorry your child only represents one kid and it is easier for us to transfer him than it is to put our job on the line and say he has equality and should be respected for who he is."

He told Mr. Iron Wing, "Sending him into a battleground where he will have to face hostile teachers and hostile students is a sure conflict. So, Mr. Iron Wing you are a wise man and I will transfer him into another school and insure that you avoid conflict. It is better for us to sacrifice one than to address an issue that is controversial. It is an issue in which no teacher can publicly rise and read the quotations of its history of hate and say that name should exist today. No educator can say that name should exist and that is the reason why we do this to your son, because I fear loosing my job."

"Although, I can't say it in public I can say it from one minority to another. But, if you could get my boss to ask me to read that in public and comment on it, then I could clearly say it should have been excluded from today's language that refers to Native Americans. It should be excluded for a very simple reason, even for the most uneducated mind, where ever a word is used in conjunction with the word "extermination" it is a word of hate."

REDSKIN: A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME:

"Eastern humanitarians who believe in the superiority of the Indian race will raise a terrible howl over this policy, but it is no time to split hairs nor stand upon delicate compunctions of conscience... A few months of active extermination against the red devils will bring quiet and nothing else will." - August 10, 1864, Byres, the editor of the Rocky Mountain News, at Denver. Four months before the massacre of 400 Cheyenne at Sand Creek. (Svaldi, 1989, p. 171)

 

"Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth." January 3, 1891 (a week after the Wounded Knee Massacre "The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer", publisher, L. Frank Baum (he wrote The Wizard of Oz)

 

... every redskin must be killed from off the face of the plains before we can be free from their molestations. They are of no earthly good and the sooner they are swept from the land the better for civilization"-1866 - Major John Vance Lauderdale, surgeon US Army, attending physician at Wounded Knee Massacre.

So Governor, you read these quotes and tell us if this word of extinction should be used in the modern day educational setting? Read these words or don't you want to spent the time and don't think children are important enough to spent the time? What can you tell the victims who are paying the price already? But the question is very simply, "How many children are you willing to sacrifice?" I can prove to you Governor that you have already not only sacrificed my child, you have already sacrifice the two students in Little River and you have sacrificed the Native Americans in McPherson. These are the latest victims. I can prove to you there are other victims out there.

The only problem is they are live victims and this is not the way you will get publicity. These victims are warning signs. What does a live victim tell you, that there are warning signs out there? You call the shots, listen to live victims or wait for dead victims? What do you think a warning sign looks like?

As a parent I can say there should be no victims because there is nothing worse than the death of a child. As a Native American activist I will transfer my son from school to school. Not because that school system should keep its mascot but because I want my son to live. I do not want him in that dangerous environment. You don't think it's dangerous? I would like you to explain how it is not. As a young Native American child who stands up for his dignity to be free from that so called "teasing", the mascot issue does clearly promote the ridicule and isolation of another child. This is factual and has happened through out this country. That is why the Native Americian activist fights this issue thorough out the country.

Teasing in any form, as the assassinations at Littleton Colorado have proven, can be very deadly. Now as a parent you should know why I transferred my son away from that school. As a parent you should have recognized the warning signs that I have recognized. I acted accordingly. I got my son out of those schools into a school where he finally felt comfortable. It is pretty shameful of your State of Kansas when a parent has to do that and you and your educational system cannot recognize it.

BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL: NATIVE AMERICAN SENATOR FROM COLORADO

The shame of the massacre at Littleton is the simple fact that their school system could not recognize that the isolation of any child for any reason has a dire consequence. The even greater shame of Colorado is Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell who should be shouting about the warning signs of violence now before educators in the mascot issues. As a Native American he should understand the ridicule and the teasing against his own people that goes along with the mascot. Yet this man appeared on National TV and didn't understand what happened at Littleton, when every Native American activist out there knows that stereotyping any child because of race, color, creed or dress will create an explosive situation. Campbell knows this is happening to the Native American child in this country but he failed to alert the parents and communities to this battleground in schools. But then, of course, the answer is simple, he is ignorant of Native Americans and their concerns because he is a politician.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, like you, Governor Bill Graves, knows the history of the redskin name and yet he remains silent. He is a politician and will not address controversial issues just the same as you even when you have been told the lives of children hang in the balance. There is a failure in the political system not only from the white side but from the Native American side. People in the system remain silent until they have the ultimate victim, the dead child.

So before you and the media and the educational system point the finger back to the parents, don't you think you should listen to what the parents are telling you? Don't you think you should give them an answer they can respond to in public instead of giving answers behind closed doors? "We just have one child, we can't change the entire system for one child."

So, your victim list grows until you decide to put a stop to it with education. Your victim list grows until you decide to do the right thing. When does one child become important to you? When does one family under threats of violence become important to you? When do two children who write threatening letters become important enough to you to ask why they did it? You have a very bad track record Mr. Graves. Against this failure are the children hoping you can change. But if we look at your history there is very little hope for our children and for the victims.

Sincerely,

Clem Iron Wing, Wichita
Matthew Richter, McPherson

This letter is on American Comments Web Magazine, for the world wide web for the nation to view: http://www.iwchildren.org/graves.htm

cc. Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall

Salina Journal, Hutch News, Lyons News, McPherson Sentinel, Kansas City Star,
Chanute Tribune

RELATED ARTICLES

TWO STUDENTS ARRESTED IN LITTLE RIVER FOR RACE HATE CRIMES

THE RAPE THREAT- February 9th
"HAVE YOU EVER HAD YOUR ASS KICKED NIGGA?"- 2nd threat of February 17th
REDSKIN: A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME
TEACHING BIGOTRY: THEY START OUT WITH THE YOUNG ONES

copyright American Comments Magazine
Clem Iron Wing, Matthew Richter, 1999