Murdering Eagles in Wyoming

Murder of Eagles, corrupt tribe gets permission to kill 2 Eagles

These photos show human beings abusing the sacred feathers of the Eagle. Not one of these people are using feathers in a sacred manner. They are using them to show off, strut and behave with arrogance. They are disgracing the sacred. Read more below the photos......

The Wyoming Northern Arapaho Tribe has somehow gotten permission to kill 2 bald eagles for what they describe as “religious needs”.

American Indians have long had the right to hold Eagle feathers and other parts of the Eagle for religious and cultural purposes. Otherwise, the Federal Government considers it a felony for any citizen to possess any part of an eagle for any reason.

The US government in fact maintains an “Eagle feather repository” where dead eagles, for whatever reason, are sent for reclaimation. Tribal members can fill out documents and request feathers from this repository for religious needs. It is very slow, the process and the feathers that are delivered are often to damaged to be used in ceremony. It is not a good program.

Anyone who has ever visited an American Indian pow-wow will see thousands of Eagle feathers. Pow-wows are not sacred events. They are commercial events. Pow-wows have nothing to do with any traditional American Indian religion. They got started after WW 2 as a way for tribes to make money from tourists. While many American Indians have a real passion for these commercial events, they have nothing to do with any tribal religion.

At a commercial pow-wow you can often see little children wearing dozens of fine Eagle feathers on their dance costumes….along with adults. These feathers are being abused and used in non-religious or traditional ways, but I am probably the only person to ever say this out loud.

I hold a number of Eagle feathers. They are a very important part of my ceremonial duties. Each one was gifted to me by tribal elders as I moved through my life, over many years. I did not kill anyone or anything to get them. Some of them have been passed down through many generations.

The average person knows nothing about these eagle feathers. Right now, the news in Indian Country is that this permit to murder Eagles is some sort of victory. I do not think it is. I think it is bad news.

There are so many Eagle feathers in the hands of idiots, in the costumes of pow-wow dancers and used by other arrogant American Indians to strut around and show off, uses that have nothing to do with the sacred. The abuse of the sacred by pow-wow Indians has long been a disgrace to the sacred teachings of the Elders of all tribes.

I believe there are more than enough Eagle feathers to help every American Indian without allowing the sanctioned murder of eagles in the United States. I say shame, shame, shame on the Northern Arapaho Tribe for this insult to reason and honor and this abuse of the word Sacred.

Dennis Banks || A Good Day To Go Ahead and Die Please

Dennis Banks, the coward and criminal who allegedly co-founded the criminal organization know as AIM is once again taking his flim-flam show on the road. He is touring around with screenings of his fictional film, curiously entitled “A Good Day To Die”, which claims to be about “his” life.

Banks is the guy who ran like a rabbit in the middle of the night, leaving his then pregnant wife standing in the middle of the street to deal with the Highway Patrol. She has testified in court, since then, that Banks has some involvement in the murder of Ana Mae Aquash.

For years Banks hid in the shadows of a New York Reservation, protected by the Iroquois, while his associates were discredited as liars and criminals in various courts around the country.

Naive Americans are so desperate for some sort of symbol to represent the suffering of American Indians. Every few years they dust off Banks and send him around to do his self-serving best to define himself as a hero to yet another collection of poorly informed and clueless Americans.

You never see Banks with any of the other so-called cofounders of AIM. This is because they all despise each other. No one wants to be seen with Russell Means and the last surviving Bellecourt refuses to be seen or associated with any of these people.

For more than 30 years Banks has been living off, and making money from the lies built around the so-called AIM movement of the 1970s. With Means half dead from cancer, Banks is the only relic of this myth left alive to pander and pose.

Banks has no credibility with the majority of American Indians, at least the ones that are sober and work for an honest living. More than anything, Banks symbolizes the complete lack of reliable and honest information available in this modern world about American Indians.

Film makers are just to lazy to go out into American Indian communities and find the real American Indians who struggle every day in honest ways against the suppression, abuse and neglect of society. For all these years they keep telling this tired story of this tired old man, as if it were the only story worth knowing about the more than 500 tribes of American Indians who live in these United States.

Every day is a bad day for American Indians in this country. This latest project by Banks is just more salt in the open wound that American Indians must suffer every day. It is tragic that once again this old man is making a living from the lies and delusions of that time. The American Media seems to know only one story about American Indians, and they have never even gotten that one story right. This man’s life is an insult to the many heroic and determined American Indians who struggle in this society to make their lives work, in their communities, invisible to the society which surrounds them.

American Indian Saint? || No Thank You

Tragic. 

As an Ojibway American Indian I hope that the Mohawk Nation will consider refusing this dubious honor. 

Given the murderous, genocidal policies and abuse of American Indians by the Catholic Church, it is in my view an intense hypocrisy of the church to make this move. American Indians have their own traditional religions that continue to exist even today. Tribe do not need any favors from the Catholic Church. The absolute best response of the American Indian community would be to refuse this phony honor. 

This is especially true these days with this so-caled Pope sitting at the head of a corrupt criminal organization. Not one American Indian will receive any benefit from this move. The church will use it to excuse and ignore its centuries of abuse towards all indigenous peoples in the world. The Borgia Pope was the boss there when the Europeans first encountered American Indians. He issued a Papal Bull that these tribal people had no souls. He did this so they could be sold as slaves, which they were....since having no souls meant they could not be baptized...and at the time baptized Christians could not be sold as slaves. From that day until this, the Church has done what amounts to nothing for any Indigenous People. Benedict in fact has argued that traditional tribal religions are toxic and have no value and should not be recognized or tolerated by governments. To most American Indians, this is just pouring salt into a wound that has yet to heal.

I may be one of the few people who feel this way, I am not sure. In any event I wish there was some way to address the Mohawk Nation and see how they feel about this news. The MSM seems to indicate that the tribe is very happy and excited about this news.

There is an opportunity here for all American Indians to weigh in. The entire world is hearing about this story, as it is a singular event. This would be a great moment for tribal leaders, for any and all tribal voices to speak out and even have a chance of being heard on a wide range of issues.

Along with languages, original tribal religions really have suffered greatly in the last decades. Many of the smaller tribes have lost both language and traditional religion or spirituality. Across the board, every American Indian tribe has seen their traditions pushed to the side by the onslaught of modern life and from the efforts of relentless Christian missionaries who yet labor to save the savages.

The few reports I have read from various sources, such as the lame and weak Indian Country Today are celebrating and heralding this move as good news. I guess they are just starved for attention.

If any American Indians from any tribe read this blog, I would welcome their comments. I am not against anyone who is for this move by the Catholic church.

However, let the record show that, as a Keeper of Sacred Ceremony, I am against it.

Dancing With Myself || Digital Gallery Opening

Bear Went Over the Mountain || 2001 Taos New Mexico || Turtle Heart Ojibwe Artist

Today I make a dance with myself and announce the opening of a digital art gallery of my collected works, from 1979 until 2012. This is the best destination at this moment to see the artistic works of this artist in stone, wood, pigments, photography and type. Shaman Art Gallery is the only place where you can purchase art by this artist. So we are happy to nnounce this new digital gallery in celebration of decades of art exploration and revelation of one American Indian Artist.

Opening ||Turtle Heart has been an artist working in stones, pigments, photography, digital and print since 1975. He is an Ojibway American Indian artist living and working on Pantelleria Island, in the Mediterranean Sea.

Today we announce the Opening of the Shaman Art Gallery : 

Collected Works 1979 to 2012, by Turtle Heart.

In January of Twenty Twelve, Turtle Heart has put up a comprehensive gallery of Collected Works || 1979 to 2012. This is the best place at present to see the unique artistoc stylings of an artist with a passion for illustrating and defining American Indian sacred ceremony.

Sales || Collected Works are offered for sale. We use the Paypal system. We have used it for twenty years and it has worked perfectly for us. You may of course contact us directly for any arrangements to bring one of these treasures into your collection.

This is the only authorized location where original works of art by Turtle Heart can be examined and purchased. We will answer any reasonable questions about the art selections. You may also request via email additional photographs or details about any object in the collection.

As an artist, my life has brought me far away from the gallery streets of the famous old towns. I hope that the internet can be the new community of world travelers, of universal citizens. I guarantee completely and absolutely your satisfaction in the purchase of this art.

I am Turtle Heart. I am an artist in motion. I rest with the daughter of the Wind.

Visit the Gallery (click)

Pantelleria Italy
January Twenty Twelve

Russell Means || The Only Good Indian…

Copyright 2011 Turtle Heart. Means around 30 years ago at Harvard. 
Photo by the author. The bundle in front of Means contained a very
Sacred Pipe and other sacred objects. Author was the Keeper of these
ceremonial objects.

In the beginning, his life seemed promising. He ascended into the mainstream media as  articulate, knowledgeable and charismatic. It did not take very long for him to be corrupted, for his dark side to become the boss of his life. Through decades of lies, criminal acts, abuse of women, of the truth and in supporting of murder of innocents, Means has come at last to the end of his broken journey.

For reasons that have never been quite clear, the limited attention the world’s media pays to any kind of American Indian issue, was directed mostly at this man. He has seemed to have what some call a “gift” for getting media attention. Of all the American Indians, living or dead, Means got the most media attention, worldwide. Every moment of this coverage was dedicated to Means love of himself, and nothing at all to do with any issues affecting American Indians. It is partly the media’s fascination with its own fantasies about American Indians and a general indifference to any issue affecting American Indians. Means was a product of this media void, somewhere near the middle of fantasy and indifference.

Many years ago….I am not good with dates: I was present as the Keeper of the Sacred Pipes of the Eastern Gate when Means, and the Bellecort brothers, addressed Harvard University Law School. It was a spectacular speech. It was well attended, but not by the Harvard Law School population. Most of those present were other American Indians from around the Boston area. There was some curiosity. This was just before the scam the world came to know as “Wounded Knee”.

These days we have some evidence that the Means story is winding down. If we can believe what is being written, he claims to have cancer and is in the situation of greeting his own mortality. Any words about Means published in the national media must be viewed with some suspicion. You absolutely cannot believe, in the case of Means, that what you are hearing is the truth.

Some of us imagine that right now there could be a sort of Means awakening. A moment in his long life of lies and crimes and bullshit where he decides to do the right thing, one time, before the end. 

There is much he could and should and might yet tell us regarding the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, for example. There are other crimes he could illuminate. There might even be a justice department willing to grant him some favors if he tells society the truth about his long-standing criminal enterprise.

If he actually cared about any American Indian on this earth, he would want to tell the truth at the end of his life. He knows how to do it. I have seen him speak truth to power. After so many decades of his little game, he could stand right up and tell us the truth. He might then realize that his many American Indian relatives did not ever stop loving him…they just preferred to stay sober.

There are two ideas about what is a good Indian.

One… is that he is dead. A good Indian is a dead Indian. A dead, lying Indian. Go ahead. Whine and cry and ask for money.

The other is that he looked into the clouds and sings the song of his death, the last song of a Lakota Man, a child of the Sacred Pipe, the male child of his male ancestors, a Grandchild of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and all the other Grandfathers who held their sacred and spoke the truth in the face of their deaths.

Hymhenteqhous Mizhekay Odayin

Ahnishinabeg Aneeg Wabeeno
Keeper of the Four Directions Unity Bundle
Keeper of the Sacred Pipes of the Eastern Gate

Steve Jobs || American Indian Friend

©2011 Turtle Heart "Support Group"

At the end of the article is the last email I sent to Steve Jobs, this last August.

So much emotion being expressed and felt by so many people. A very unusual thing.

Two days later I still feel a strong emotion myself.

Some years ago I was struggling near the region of Death Valley, to develop what was the first American Indian WWW presence, in the world. My work caught the eye of a field representative for Apple and he paid me a visit. After it was over, Apple donated a state of the art laptop and color scanner to my project, which really took off.

In return I did a large stone sculpture which was for some years in the lobby of the Apple Regional HQ in Santa Monica. A view of it is in the photo above.

He once said, "It is more fun to be a pirate than to be a sailor"....this spirit is one we shared, at least until the iphone came out.

Steve Jobs passed away. I think millions of people around the world feel closer to death. He was a King of the Golden Tower and also its Shining Prince.

 He fell down for medical reasons at an early age, though he had every medical opportunity at state of the art levels. One by one and all each within themselves pass through this death. Many flavors but only one bone. 

I exchanged a few emails with Jobs. I did not save them. Or publish them online as some people did. One on a Christmas eve and he answered me on Christmas day.  I think he became bored with computers and the innovations he could have made to laptops and desktops is now probably lost in the void as he brought his passion into the little mobile devices and also developed an odd preference for severe controls. In what feels like a darkside move to me, he managed to get a piece of every telephone call people make with his phones. Why should the hardware developer get paid for this reason? Of course it deposited a massive amount of cash into their basket, and if that is the only argument in its favor, then his spirit has a wound much like the one which captured his body. The control thing, at its root, is an evil precedent. I have always thought it was great that for every control move Apple made, hackers broke it, and will continue to break it; as they should. Jobs started out more as a hacker of technology than a conformist to it. The closure of the open aspect, for me, is a long shadow. I can appreciate the devilish cleverness of the scheme; it cracks a smile out of me. I guess he had earned the bones for a few “fuck you’s” here and there. I am not optimistic the crew he left behind can do the job, no pun intended. He was building a new home for his family. Submitted the designs for a new home for his vision of Apple. Both controversial and unique projects of their own. He really liked really fine glass. No one has paid much attention, in the media, to all the patented, clever, relentless things he has done with glass. A grand dragon and a sweet provider.

If it were not for Steve Jobs we would all be using ms-dos. Even now. Microsoft copied Apple to produce the so-called "windows" operating system invented by Apple. Just think how that would be?

My dear man, we hardly knew ye.......


My last email to Steve Jobs, back in August 2011

Dear Mr Steve Jobs…. The period just before you came back to Apple I made a long ceremony in the California desert with an Apple employee named Richard Schlien (or Klien) a field supporter at Ridgecrest California….. we went to a sacred place of the Shoshone and I made a long ceremony with sacred pipe to take care of Apple and to bring you back it was a great ceremony in the California Desert at the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center…..a place where thousands of years ago our ancestors made multimedia messages in the stone called petroglyphs I am a principal keeper of ceremonies and some of us old indians have held you in our medicine we still do even though you did not do shit for us you are a great character the old Indians would call you a jesa-kid, a man who does healing by juggling light a very honored profession at one time. Our ancient hardware and software works as well as yours… and we worked it that day, all day and feasted together after With a 540c traded from your Santa Monica office for a big sculpture for the lobby (did you ever see my big sculpture in your lobby?) I became the first American Indian in the world to make an American Indian web site, from the middle of nowhere. You read some of my emails. I hope you read this one and it sinks in somewhere that a pricipal pipe of the ancient way of the Ojibwe American Indians went to work for you and remains nearby you have a soul so you might be able to accept that there is something there something you can use the best thing you ever did was stay in your skin and trust your bones and keep your silence and pass quietly through a wall of iron and you somehow managed to take most of the world with you I am the old Indian that wakes you up once in a while from that restless journey you call sleep. Miqwitch man in Jeans. Wave on. Turtle Heart Ahnishinabek Aneeg Wabeeno Keeper of the Four Directions Unity Bundle Keeper of Sacred Pipe of the Eastern Gate World Journey of the Sacred Pipe Pantelleria Italy

Vietnam || The Tragic Legacy of Monsanto and Agent Orange

People and Power || Children of Agent Orange


Follow the link to the documentary airing now on Aljazeera/English. 


Agent Orange, a dioxin-based compound, was sprayed relentlessly over the once lush forests of Vietnam. Even now, so many years later, the rich bio-diversity of this wildlife paradise has not recovered.

The United States government left behind many families who have given birth, over 3 generations now, to heart breaking deformities in their children. the financial, emotional and psychological cost of these health problems on the families and communities is enormous.

Monsanto, the corporation which made the most money from this chemical has done nothing and blocked, at great expense, any effort by anyone to hold them accountable for this horrific consequence of their product. The US Government has done next to nothing. World aid agencies have done next to nothing. The Vietnam government is over-whelmed, the Vietnam medical system is over-whelmed. The United States media could care less.

I am a Vietnam veteran. I was right there, but not in the areas where Agent Orange was used. Lucky me. Many US Soldiers were also sprayed. Monsanto told everybody it was Ok to spray it everywhere. It would kill plants not people, they said.

Why has no one in the west every even brought up the idea that Monsanto Corporation has some liability and responsibility here? the Vietnames government ries over and over to bring action against Monsanto and the USA but it is always shot down, denied, ignored...and so every year they keep trying.

Americans should see this documentary.

One of the most compelling mind-fucks in this documentary are the numerous interviews with American Indian veterans of that war who have gone back to Vietnam to try and help.

Aljazeera has aired some of the most beautifully produced documentaries I have ever seen. This painful subject is presented without sensationalism. It is presented honestly, with real compassion for the suffering people we get to see and hear.

Watch it.