"More than 50 state bills that would criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail freedom of association have been introduced across the country in the past two years. These bills are a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to the tactics of some of the most effective protesters in recent history, including Black Lives Matter and the water protectors challenging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.                                                                                                                                                                               
If they succeed, these legislative moves will suppress dissent and undercut marginalized groups voicing concerns that disrupt current power dynamics.
Efforts vary from state to state, but they have one thing in common: they would punish public participation and mischaracterize advocacy protected by the First Amendment."

​Some of these bills want to impose criminal penalties and devastating fines simply for offering food or housing to protestors. For instance, a bill currently being considered in Wyoming would impose a $1 million penalty on any person or organization that “encourages” certain forms of environmental protest. Legislation introduced in Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, and North Dakota would have allowed drivers to hit protesters with cars without criminal repercussions.

Legislation is not the only tool the oil and gas industry is deploying in its effort to silence opposition. Six months ago, Energy Transfer Partners filed a $900 million dollar lawsuit against several environmental groups, including Greenpeace, alleging that a “criminal enterprise” was put in place to stop the pipeline project.
​
Similarly, 84 members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to the Department of Justice earlier this fall, asking officials to prosecute pipeline activists as “terrorists” — a troubling policy that resembles the one being lobbied for at a federal level by the American Petroleum Institute.

When did America become a "government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation"? 

In my books I mention when the Miccosukees had legendary lawyer Morton Silver fighting their case to be recognized as a sovereign nation but the U.S. wasn't interested. So Silver threatened to take the case to the UN and the World Court. Still nothing from Uncle Sam. But when he and some Miccosukee delegates had the audacity to meet in 1959 with the new Cuban leader Fidel Castro re recognition of their sovereignty-- and got it!-- Uncle Sam "saw the light" so to speak and bestowed sovereignty on the tribe (hence giving me the chance to take Sanctuary at its Miami Embassy). 

​But my tribe the New Seminole doesn't have a silver tongued and muy clever Morton Silver representing us. We're on our own, using weapons of a different kind to protect us and our children. To paraphrase a piece of American history that has been long forgotten re the new bills introduced to usurp our basic freedoms, "don't try that shit with me?" I'm New Seminole and we won't stand for it. 

To read more, please click here.

Listen up and then warrior up for Autumn Peltier, a 13-year-old from Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. She told world leaders yesterday to "warrior up" and start protecting our waters in a World Water Day speech at the UN General Assembly. "Many people don't think water is alive or has a spirit," the Anishinaabe girl from Wikwemikong First Nation told the diplomats gathered in New York City in her speech on World Water Day. "My people believe this to be true. Our water deserves to be treated as human with human rights. We need to acknowledge our waters with personhood so we can protect our waters."

The five-foot tall teen stood on a stool behind the podium so she could reach the microphone-- but her spirit needed no stool to be seen and heard. Gotta love her. I hope to be as wise and brave as Autumn. 

I woke up this morning in the Miccosukee Embassy where I'm doing Sanctuary to discover the tribe may be behind a babynapping. Apparently a high ranking tribal grandmother got tribal police to leave the rez, drive 32 miles to Miami and snatch the newborn baby of Rebecca Sanders, a Miccosukee, and her white boyfriend Justin Johnson, while she and her baby Ingrid Ronan Johnson were still in the hospital following her birth March 16th. According to the Miami Herald, the parents have "filed complaints with Miami-Dade police, state prosecutors and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs" alleging that the "tribal court order was a sham, concocted by the baby’s vengeful maternal grandmother, Betty Osceola, who simply did not want a white father to be a part of the child’s life."

​This brought back memories of my daughter Haalie's birth (Book Two). It was a moonless night deep in the Everglades. Nokosee and I were on the run from Army Rangers who were trying to kill us. With the help of Nokosee's father Busimanolotome (Busi) Osceola who helped us escape-- and died for it-- I gave birth in a bithlo (a dugout canoe) hidden among the sawgrass with the sound of the firefight going on in the background. I will never forget looking up into the black night sky from the wet bottom of the bithlo as I screamed to push Haalie out. It was glowing red from the distant fires that were burning down our secret hammock hideout.

Although I'm an Osceola by marriage to Nokosee, Betty Osceola is not Nokosee's grandmother. Almost everyone in the Miccosukee or Seminole tribes is an Osceola. That said, if you read my books, you know that my getting accepted into the tribe by marriage was a major undertaking that included a prequel Busi dreamed up-- like the New Seminole-- he called a "Walkabout" in the Everglades that would prove my worthiness. I call it an Everglades Death March which left me abandoned, starving, bleeding, mosquito bit across every part of my body, and naked-- all because Busi didn't want to have anything to do with me. So, if what they said about Betty Osceola is true, that she didn't want her granddaughter to marry a white man, I can relate.  Although Busi never said it outright, I'm pretty sure he wanted Nokosee to marry within the tribe-- which is nuts when you consider Nokosee's mom is Cuban. She once was Demaris Rodriguez before she met Busi at Hialeah High where they were both students. But then again, Nokosee is the "First of the New Seminole" so I suspect the old man was hoping to start the new tribe off with a pure bred. Anyway, it's not like intermarriage between the tribes and "Outsiders" is rare. It's been going on for years with white and blacks so when I read this news today, I had to wonder what this is really all about. I suspect there is more than one side to this story.  But in any event, you don't snatch newborns from their mother's arms no matter what the reason. ​

​UpDate (3/22): The Miccosukee Tribal Court has ruled baby Ingrid must be returned to her mother and father. 

In a recent story on the PBS News Hour by Courtney Norris about Hollywood taking a new interest in tales from and about today's Indigenous Americans, I was reminded about a story Micco Busemanolotome Osceola, founder of the New Seminole, loved to tell over and over again about Apache actress Sacheen Littlefeather. Way back in 1973, Littlefeather became world famous for not accepting Marlon Brando's Oscar® as Best Actor for his portrayal of Don Corleone in The Godfather. When I told Busi I had never heard of her, he whipped out a military sat phone and like a kid who couldn't wait to show us something, proceeded to play a YouTube video for Nokosee and me in a hidden chickee deep in the Everglades. Her brave speech got boos (and later industry blacklisting of her) but she still touches the heart today with her carefully chosen words and quiet nonconfrontational demeanor. I hope someday if I live long enough that I'll become just like her, that I'll have that same pacific, graceful personality. 

If you read my books you know I'm a Doc Martens fan from way back. I even wore a gold lame pair in the Everglades when I was on the run with Nokosee and the New Seminoles. So when I saw this FB post from Style Insider, it brought back fond memories-- and a longing to be free to stroll into that LA store and buy a pair again. But since I's doing Sanctuary at the Miccosukee Embassy that won't be happening so if anybody out there wants to do me a solid, I'm a 7½ , love polka dots and sparkly stuff but I'm kinda digging those "weaponized" Docs...

The Alt National Park Service is the "official resistance team for the U.S. National Parks Services." It was "formed in response to the new administration, who has shown little mercy for the environment." Comprised of over "1.8 million individuals from around the globe," it gives Nokosee and me hope.