in light of the complicated posturing, madness, and screams for justice going on down south in columbia, i woke up this morning thinking about ingrid washinawatok (el-issa) of the menominee people before i really realized that it was nine years to the day that she'd been abducted, tortured, and murdered along with hawai'ian human rights activists, lahe'ena'e gay and terence freitas, by somewhat rogue factions of the f.a.r.c. she'd been in the territory trying to help the local the uwa people build a cultural school for their people who were on the verge of losing massive quantities of land due to two major oil companies prospecting in their territory. the uwa were about to threaten massive suicide in response to the threat of the entire loss of their homelands. there's much reason to believe that the rogue f.a.r.c. had no idea who they had on their hands and killed them before hearing from higher-ups.

ingrid was a co-chair of the indigenous women's network and they released a statement that not only demanded the full prosecution of the commanders and killers in charge, but also placed equal culpability on the united states government for exacerbating an already tense situation in the country between the self-proclaimed revoltionary fighters and counter-revolutionaries.

We believe that the US State Department destabilized negotiations and ultimately cost our sisters and brother their lives, in a possible attempt to gain financial support for US policies in Colombia. We attribute this assertion to the fact that exactly during the negotiations for the release of the three humanitarian workers, the US State Department released approximately $230 million in military support for the allegedly Anti-Drug War in Colombia. The Colombian government then attacked and killed over 70 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC in an orchestrated attack. We believe that these two overt acts may have destabilized any hopes for the release of our sisters and brother.

--from Statement By The Indigenous Women's Network, March 8, l999

ingrid had a life and resume bursting at the seams in work in getting the world forum to recognize indigenous sovereignty -- not just on a domestic scale. and she recognized that sovereignty came with the revolutionary indigenous concept of economic self-determination, that management of resources required far more diligence than the current bureaucracies were giving them.

There are many definitions of sustainable development, and the word has become overused and almost meaningless. Moreover, it rings hollow unless the efforts of humankind are centered toward rebuilding the planet.

-- from "Reflections on Working Towards Peace"

it's a message that folks are still working towards realizing. i sat in on a speech given by a pomo friend of mind the other night and he was talking about how resource management is still an issue for the u.s. domestically and yeah, it was pretty far-out that it's how this continent and the giant one to the south had been run for thousands of years with enormous design lives and also on enormous scales... and ingrid and her work came up -- but we couldn't remember her name. and i was deeply ashamed that i knew who he was referring to, but that i had forgotten her name. and i swore of the next couple of weeks, i would find out her name and drudge up the "native americas" article i had saved somewhere. and it ended up being nine years later...

i'm sorry, ingrid.