 Last Russian Babylon Voices catching up voices catching up watch out child Watch out child Babylon falling down falling down Society of broken promise economies war citizen horse Political pimps leaving us flat on our backs trading today waiting with a promised land First I'm glad to see you here, and I'm glad that I'm here And if I say anything That you don't agree with Let's just leave it up. We don't agree about it All right There's no clear thought Being exercised right now in the American public They're allowing the insanity of the leaders You know to make decisions All right that really are not in the best interest of the public They're not in the best interest of the children of the public They're not in the best interest of the grandchildren of the public They're not in the best interest of the earth. They're not in the best interest of anyone I felt as though someone knocked me unconscious when I entered the world It's been a lifetime trying to come to I used to get this idea that I was in the wrong time in the wrong place. I Thought that I came here a hundred years too late The hundred years too late was because I used to see this camp on the plains amongst the trees by a river It was a tribal camp and I felt I was a part of it It's like these thoughts were memories Every part was familiar And I was a part of the whole thing There was another place another dream. I Can still physically see this camp. It was in the mountains somewhere My job was to keep peace with the walls Keep peace for my people to make this alliance crazy or We hear what you say One earth one mother One does not sell the earth The people walk upon The spirit of life is almost non-existent in the perceptional reality of the society that we're in It's almost non-existent. They got religion. They got civilization. You know, they got military. They got politics They got all education. They got all the stuff. They don't have the spirit to live His name is John Chudel American Indian Movement And I'm from the indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere as the indigenous people we have watched We have watched this thing happen on our hemis. We understand that the issue is the land the issue is the earth We cannot change the political system We cannot change the economic system We cannot change the social system until the people control the land It was trouble in Custer, South Dakota yesterday after President Johnson transmits the bill to Congress as attorney general The great lie is that it is civilization. It's not civilized. It's been the most it's been it has been literally the most blood-thirsty Brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet That is not civilization. That's the great lie is that it represents civilization That's the great lie Or if it does represent civilization and that's truly what civilization is then the great lie is that civilization is good for us the conversations I had with him were Explosive in their insights and they were exciting I would imagine it was not too dissimilar from what some people feel when they talk to the Dalai Lama John was way ahead of the game He said it's likely this is where the country is going to be on this issue. And this is what the Effects are going to be and he's been right from the time I met John I thought That he had one of the most engaging minds of anybody I had met very charismatic very focused He was John there was no middle ground John speaks and there's a there's a simultaneous reaching out There was a reaching across generations and reaching across Racial divides to say we're both in the same situation now. We have lying dormant in us We have a genetic memory and in that genetic memory. There's knowledge. There's knowledge in that genetic memory All right, that goes back to the ancient to the beginning for us Right and in this genetic memory. There was a time when we were all tribes Every human being lived within a tribe Every human being recognized this reality that the earth was the mother and the sun and the sky was the father father sky Mother earth recognized that in our totality as human beings All right, our relationship was to that I was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1946 My mom and dad and me lived out in the Brazil Creek District of the Santi Reservation where my father was from My grandpa on my mom's side was from Mexico and he rode with Pancho Ria during the Mexican Revolution He took my grandma from one of the tribes in Chihuahua just kidnapped her and took her after the revolution They came up to Kansas because he was a wanted man Kansas was where my mom was born and grew up And my mom grew up as a Mexican Growing up. We were poor But I don't remember wanting for anything or feeling deprived of anything It was a good world and then when I was six years old my mom died. I Remember seeing my dad crying He took me to see my mom in this hospital. I Remember she gave me grapes green grapes She hugged me and kissed me and then it was time to go I Didn't see her anymore. I Didn't understand what had happened, but in some kind of a way. I knew I didn't have a mom anymore And then God came into the equation and I didn't like God. I never trusted him to God I hope you don't mind, but I would like to talk to you. There are some things we need to straighten out It's about these Christians they claim to be from your nation But man you should see the things they do all the time blaming it on you raping the earth Lying taking more than they need in all the forms of the Greeks. They say it's God's will. I Don't mean to be disrespectful. We do not mean to be disrespected. You know how it is My people have their own ways We never even heard of you until not long ago Your representative spoke magnificent things of you which we were willing to believe But from the way they acted we know you and we were being deceived It is time for you to decide what life is worth We already remember, but maybe you forgot when I was in high school They drug me into the principal's office and they told me I had a lot of potential But that I needed to learn how to study hard and make something of myself And that's when I quit school because I realized that we weren't operating on the same level of reality Because you see I knew that I already was something I Walked out of that principal's office and the schoolhouse door that day the next door. I walked into was the Navy recruiting office I wasn't a service man for you Decorated And you should know an upside-down flags a distress signal kept the militant Not a militant. I'm a warrior The only reason I volunteered for the military was I needed to get away from where I was at It wasn't about politics patriotism or anything else. It was about survival. I Was stationed on a destroyer. I did two Westpac tours to Vietnam And it turns out I made the right choice because the Vietnamese didn't have a Navy. I Was home ported out of Long Beach, and it was during this time that I met my first wife Let's see we got married in 68 we're living in San Bernardino at the time and I was working and he was going to school San Bernardino Valley College and Alcatraz happened in November and I remember he said We're going to Alcatraz and I said, oh, I don't think so. I had cold feet He said put socks on for more than six months a band of American Indians has been living without government approval on Alcatraz Island The rock that used to be a federal penitentiary and all attempts to get them off have so far failed Practice is radio free Alcatraz from Indian land Elk trans island in California government has been practicing a policy Taking what they need from the Indian people Well, not necessarily what they need taking what they want from us Just about any time that they would like to do so and they've been doing this through the years are doing it today The garbage is piling up The lighthouse is broken, but they say it's no worse than living on a typical Indian reservation This is a country where all men are created equal and it's the land of the free and the home of truth and justice and liberty for all What we want to know why that doesn't apply to us So if this is the land of the free and we want to know why we don't have the respect and dignity that all free men are accorded by other free men The government had declared Alcatraz surplus property young Indian nationalists Claiming an old treaty right to unneeded federal property descended on the island one year ago today and took it over There's ever going to be a generation of revolutionaries raised people wanting change These kids are getting These kids are getting good experiences to what what our what Indian relationship is with the government Because this has been like all along the lines here. This has been a very peaceful protest We occupied the island in the name of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty See and in the reality that all that treaties are laws So it was really about law. It was really about a legal issue Not a moral or an ethical issue with the government's Responsibilities what Alcatraz meant was it meant for the first time we saw young native people Standing up and saying we have rights where we have rights to the land We have rights to our own government and and we want to be listened to and we will be heard Well, I can understand they might feel that way But I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that if the federal government felt as though they should come off But they would come off and pretty fast approximately a month before we were removed and the removal was June 11th 1971 so sometime in May the government called us together for a negotiation and Said that they had a new proposal They would lease us half of the island and we could have job Caretaking it and they would give us two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and we told them no because It wasn't about that we wanted them to legally recognize their responsibilities to the native community Which we were representing we were negotiating with the government Concerning settling the Alcatraz issue and they guaranteed us that no action would be taken against Alcatraz Indians as long as these negotiations were taking place and Then they turned around and they came out there and they took our people off the island They called our attorney at 4 30 yesterday afternoon and told him that they would have word concerning the deed to the island They would have it in for us Monday morning And that's what we were waiting for and they came in while they were doing one thing with their left hand They came in with the right hand. They lied to us John Trudell and Richard Oaks of all the leaders that came and went During the occupation of Alcatraz were able to articulate Our feelings and give a name to what we felt and the name was Independence and sovereignty and freedom and a right to our land This reminds me of other worlds a lot of things have happened since I was king first bold right I ever made to this place when things have happened And it's like So I was kind of maybe just remembering some of those things and I've been to I've been to many Alcatraz since 1969 rigid-suit trolls near a brain and dead Underporspatious skies gathering storm clouds rule of law they falling apps in storm troopers hand Cruel class deceivers claim God for their song Making up stories with places for me Dracula drinks deeply while nourishing his trap The love of man sex does love All through the course of the years of all of us All I did was talk and they cracked down hard just for that a book of poems is called Living in reality songs called poems and then I had an opportunity To record make a tape cassette tape Where I put the poetry with the traditional tribal songs Ancient prayers answering spirits hunted by technologic slavers Good medicine Seeing through the machine first was aware of John through through political activism and then Subsequently became aware that there was an additional part to John as a poet artist spokesperson spiritualist and The I think the connection I had very strong identification with John's willingness to commit his life to a cause that was so dangerous and Would require such sacrifice because I was so taken by the fact that the US government would Try to dismantle and decimate a culture by by by first stripping them of their spirit We wonder what type of a condition exists when the people have been afraid to speak their minds We wonder what kind of a condition exists when the people's spirit is says at such a low place At such a low place that they they knowingly and they willingly go around and accept that they are governed by liars and exploiters The American people laugh about how you can't trust the politicians must take the political system under their control during that period of time the native consciousness was waking up That native spirit was flint starting to fire up John made a transition from Alcatraz to Being involved to very directly and very visibly in the American Indian movement aim was really about community Right. It was about the way of the tribe you know, I mean and and you know again it was about a legal issue because from the political and Ames statement was same as Indians of all tribes Alcatraz You have a legal responsibility treaties are laws by the Constitution their laws But when I look at America now going back to treaty this American generation, they don't look at the treaty as having any validity All right Well, I'm going to say that was an agreement made between their ancestors and my ancestors and when they break that treaty like that They're telling me they have no no spiritual connection to their past no respect for their past And if we want to get down to the realities of checking legislation has been passed in the US Congress and doing our homework on Agency such as the federal Bureau of Investigation and these energy mobilization boards We'll find out that they now have all the rights and the individuals are losing the rights And it's almost sometimes I feel like a war is being waged against us. They lied to you They confused you they told you that you had freedom and democracy But you go back and you read your Constitution you read your declaration of independence and you will see that the only People who could decide these freedoms were white males who owned property and all the rest of us were excluded I think they saw him as a tremendous threat Simply because he was able to mobilize people motivate people inspire people and get them to follow him For 500 years we have had to fight and resist and struggle against the oppressor who has come They called us Indians and said that we didn't have any rights They called us Indians and said that we were no longer people They called us Indians and they used their manifest destiny mentality to justify their genocide against us in the 1960s the FBI launched what it called the Cointel pro program the counterintelligence program and essentially it was a Program within the FBI to infiltrate the civil rights movement and to destroy it from within and from without In the late 60s very early 70s when Activists within the Indian community started vocalizing their Situation with regard to deprivations of human and civil rights The FBI shifted or used the same basic tactics to go after aim several groups of American Indians have banded together To march on the nation's capital for a redress of some long-standing grievances But the president refused to see them Congress is out of session So today they took their caravan to the Bureau of Indian Affairs ABC's Bill Matney reports They came from as far away as the Pacific Northwest and as nearby as North Carolina American Indians from 250 tribes They came to the capital is a trail of broken treaties caravan They said to reclaim their lands and their rivers and most of all their dignity We occupied the national headquarters of the BIA It was a big embarrassment to it And we're talking about Nixon and Ehrlichman and Haldeman and John Mitchell and if people remember his street I'll just think of Ashcroft Croft and Bush and Waffle it's and you're talking about these Same mentalities, but we occupied that building had it for a week and the government was in a bind see And we pushed it pretty far But we were pushing it again about the way the BIA was treating the people in the communities We had a 20-point position paper that we were presenting to the we're presenting to the government about ways that they can they can enact the treaty laws Back from DC when occupation ended at the Bureau of Indian Affairs traveling back out towards West Country and At the state honest caravan is it traveled to South Dakota and I remember when we got to Pine Ridge The Dickie Wilson a chairman took a stance that he was going to Keep the American movement off off the reservation or he could in February 1973 aim and the traditional people of Pine Ridge occupied the village of Wounded Knee Taking a stand for the legal rights of the Lakota people under the Fort Laramie Treaty law of 1868 The standoff continues at Wounded Knee, South Dakota 200 Indians still occupy that small community and federal marshals still surround them There were no incidents and no shooting today fortunately But there has been a lot of talking and a teepee Talking between the Indians and government lawyers to try to find a way to end the impasse peacefully aim picked Wounded Knee But the government picked South Dakota All right because it shut down the momentum of aim the FBI noted that one of the things that aim was Shifting its direction towards was protecting the earth at the same time some 27 multinational corporations were coming into this region Uranium and oil and other mineral companies and basically leasing and staking claims throughout the entire Black Hills region during the same time period The FBI declared aim to be one of the most dangerous organizations in the country And they began discussing the need for paramilitary assaults on what they considered to be certain aim strongholds Fine Ridge the capital of the reservation is about 10 miles from Wounded Knee But it's as tense as the small community which has been held by the militant Indians for six days now See one of the things that that the American government realized and if they saw this at Alcatraz and and they saw that it that it was really more pervasive because they saw it in aim And that is that the majority of the American citizens agreed with us Right they had they felt some kind of sympathy or understanding the majority Agreed with us Right that the government was in the wrong in its dealings and treatment of native peoples So so and to the government the way the government operates anytime any grassroots or any anytime any group of people Start to get popular support. This becomes a threat to the government Aim got labeled by this Eastland subcommittee on un-American affairs as a terrorist organization in between 73 and 75 The government with the FBI they were waging They were they were literally waging a contra war against now all of the aim people and traditionalists the ones who had supported Wounded Knee They were trying to eliminate this thought In June 1975 two FBI agents were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota The community that they launched their attack in was a community of Oglala and The course of the firefight that took place that day one of our people Joseph Stuntz was killed and two members of the federal Bureau of Investigation were killed and as a result of that, you know three men stood trial for it Do you know Butler and Bob Robb of doing pellets here? Then that's when they kind of just put the finishing touches on the momentum that aim had We had that Oglala of a firefight and afterwards we got arrested, you know He was the only one that came forward him and me lock and Tina came to our defense and help organized in the communities And when we got to town and checked into this hotel, and I turned on the news and all the news and These in the local stations were really talking about, you know, there were going to be terrorist attacks that the aim militants were coming They were going to be disruptive. They needed to have a lot of they need to have a lot more security And so they had created this paranoid climate See and all the media was carrying it. It's almost like, you know, like the government was writing it You know, so we were not liked in that town. So we had an oppressed conference and Right, I mean right away and challenged them on it here are women and kids and they met with every church group They met with every women's organization every community organization Matt and just explain look, we're just here. We don't want to be you don't want to be here We don't want to be here. We just want the opportunity and Basically Through that kind of networking and then the reality that hold it these these aren't Indians. They're human beings See that reality was emerging in Cedar Rapids And this jury got to see it, you know, because we had a positive influence in that community And in the end when push came to shove on the jury deciding on Guelter innocence This played a role So for that whole period of time From the National Indian Youth Council to aim and all Indians of all tribes and fish that whole period of time that Activist period of time that moving period I'm I think that the lasting effect of it Was it it made the spirit of the people stronger? See the woman She has a young face an old face She carries herself well in all ages She survives. Oh man has done Early on it was really a struggle of of the women having a voice, you know within the American Indian movement and You know John was there for him, you know all of our sisters Me and Tina were a good team. I mean I Met her around the end of 71 By 72 we teamed up and I worked a lot of Oklahoma with her she was always very Sensitive and very concerned about people and During the time she was at Tulsa University at she met John Trudell. He was a There doing his he was speaking to her or something. She was just taken by what John was doing and Fell in love with him She was really an intelligent person. She got it. She's one of those people I get it, right? And we and I think in many ways we complimented each other very well right and And just by her being who she is she gave me credibility in the worlds that I wouldn't normally have it in right because I was One of them wild guys, right? Her major in college was psychology You know, it's almost like she knew she was going to meet me She already had herself defense and and Tina had She told me that she would stay with me on the road for no more than two years Then she wanted to go home because home is where for her. This is where it needed to be done Tina had a way with our old ones She She knew how special they were and She'd make it a point to go and visit them and to hear what they had to share She was one of those people who took time to go and visit others and With her humble way and Gentleness they were just always so happy to see her dancing sweet Our introduction Was our seduction Touches magic from beyond That Electric feeling it's really hard to talk about Tina. It's really hard, you know, it's still a still a wound that's not healed John at that time was in in doing his thing on the national level They had to shoot out of the Guala, you know, it was still it was still a hot time It was it was still a hot time and things were secretive and and people looking over their shoulders Where John lived for Tina lived was always being caved, you know There's people saying that there are suits driving by all the time and you know checking it out and They were always being watched what we were doing in Duck Valley on her reservation So it was it was it seriously was a major thing for the system at that time because we were really the tribe tribe was taking jurisdiction without asking for permission the tribe was acting like a tribal government sovereign and There had been conflicts with the federal government because of this You know Tina was a target because the threat that Tina posed to them All right, is that she was from there? She was born there. She grew up there. They knew her They trusted her she was well educated and she understood their system For anyone to think That what happened to her happened to her As specifically something just related to me it minimizes who she is I burned the American flag in protest of the way that the American government treats the indigenous Indian people in the United States of America a Burned the American flag as an act of protest against the injustice That is being extended against all of the people We burned the American flag because it has been desecrated and It's the only proper way to dispose of the American flag after desecration is to burn it We feel that racism and sexism in class separation that these are desecrations And we feel that the American flag does not represent integrity honor justice or truth He was warned in jail That his family could be in danger, you know the way he's carrying on About two o'clock in the morning my dad came over to the he was pounding on the back door and No We opened the door and he he was just standing there and what struck me was his eyes were just sort of gray It seemed and he had his pajamas on and he just said there's a fire the house is burning and they're all in it There was a there was a line of fire across the roof, you know some people that saw it from a distance You know it says maybe that's you know somebody had torched it that way in the fire the Family was trapped in the house and Tina and her children were killed in the fire and so was her mother Tina was pregnant at the time she died and They were they had chosen the name Josiah Hawk for the baby and They put the name of the baby's name right on the headstone And then the other three Riccardo stars and shine karma and Eli changing son. I died then I Had to die in order to get through it And if I can get through it, then maybe I would learn how to live again Putting my love into the ground like this putting my love in boxes Putting them into the ground and covering them up Reconnected me to the earth. I was listening to the voices of life Chanting in unison Carry on the struggle The generation surged together in resistance to meet the reality of power Mother earth embraces her children and natural beauty to last beyond oppressors brutality As the butterfly floats into life We are the spirit of natural life, which is forever The power of understanding real connections to spirit is Meaning our resistance our struggle is not sacrificed lost It is natural energy Properly used Remember the people Remember sky and earth Remember the people have always struggled to live in harmony in peace Struggle against selfishness and weakness so the people may live as nations the old ways are hard People have always had to work together remember impatient one remember and live Do not be afraid of truth Respect discipline share your life so the people may live Honor sky and earth honor yourself honor your relations Remember impatient one the gentleness of time About six months after the fire. I was with Dino Butler in Vancouver He's the one it took care of me after the fire And I was really desperate. I didn't know anything not even what reality was Anyway, we were there in Canada driving around and I was feeling really bad It was very overcast outside and these lines came into my head and something told me to write them down and to not stop writing them And I started to write my lines They call poems But in reality they are lines that were given to me to hang on to These were my hanging on lines And I know that's real to me that this is something that Tina gave to me as a parting gift And somewhere in that haze and smoke I Recognize to follow where this writing would take me to follow it to just go with it Whatever the madness whatever the extreme I had to bounce around in to follow the writing and maybe someday I'd find some kind of center this woman this love This life we dare to live This society afraid of what people might see When see through themselves or somebody else might see what isn't meant to be hidden Last time I saw her Tina smile woman woman's love Hands so gentle eyes so wise Woman touch I am taken We're all so undivided where the high wind flies and somewhere a wild horse listens I often thought he was he was a living example of The line out of one of my songs that Bobby McGee wears the freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose He had Well, he had very little left to lose after they had taken his family away but and I Think it made him Fearless So when I come to Canada I ask you for political asylum I come to Canada Understanding that my request for political asylum and the people that are traveling with me That our request for political asylum is not just an illusionary fancy. That's in our idea It's not just an attempt to embarrass the American government Our request for political asylum is built upon the reality that America is still conducting its genocidal war against the Indian people Our request for political asylum is based on the reality that you cannot embarrass the American government You cannot embarrass something that's built and based on greed violence and corruption that cannot be done We have never really seen the war go away. I mean if you're dying If you're dying from the seventh Calvary's bullets But if you're dying from induced poverty and racism and class systems and sex systems All right, and and you're dying from alcoholism and poverty All right, or someone has come in now in the name of maximizing the profit and they're getting you to work in the mines The uranium mines and you're dying from lung cancer and you're dying from the cancers and the disease that come out of that You're dying. It's the same as the bullet killing you and I that's I see it all as a war You know like I've heard a lot of people talk about the theoretical nuclear war. What if it ever comes? Well, you know, let's offer a perspective on that a little bit and say well The nuclear war is here. That's what that dead Navajo uranium miner is he's a victim of that war That's what them still birds are that came out of Three Mile Island That's what the miscarriages and the still birds are in Pine Ridge where the radio activities reached into the water the nuclear war That is being waged against the people on the Western Hemisphere does not just happen and occur after the uranium has been made into plutonium It occurs and it begins the day that's one of the corporate terrorists Decides while we're going to take the uranium from these Indians over here And then in order to get the land to get the uranium from under our land and in order to maximize their profit at the same time While they are doing this They use their law enforcement agencies such as the FBI They use them as a private standing army for the corporate state and the FBI comes into our communities and they attack us while They're calling us criminals and then after they have broken down and they have put our people into the prisons And they have killed our most vocal people and they have driven our people underground While they have used the taxpayers while the corporate state uses the taxpayers dollars to send its private army to attack us Then when the resistance is beaten down enough then the corporate state comes in and makes deals with the federal government And they walk away with all the resources at a very cheap price because their entire war against us was waged and Subsidized by the American people under the name of law and order So they get it for nothing and then they turn it around and sell it back to the American people That is the principle behind maximizing the profit. It is the principle behind colonization I met John for the first time when we were doing a couple of gigs around the nuclear issue Mount Taylor in Grants, New Mexico Was the first date and we were dealing with uranium mining on Native American lands John really focused it for a large audience and by combining with the no nukes movement I think he brought a connection in the audience and in the press And and Indian people's consciousness that was so powerful that I don't think that we've ever really been the same and To have that kind of artistic voice that mixes politics and fantastic poetry This makes him very very unique and very important And I think he stands alone as being the most effective Native American activists we have today I have to ask you this since it's columbus day. Does that mean anything to you as a native person? I mean with no disrespect to anyone I think asking native people to celebrate columbus day is kind of like asking the American people to celebrate osama bin laden day And I actually think that terrorism arrived on this hemisphere with columbus because for us as native people the experience that we had was You know, I mean, how did my land become somebody else's country? Fair enough Columbus I guess I'll just start with columbus See, I have a real problem about All of this I mean, see to me he was like a virus A disease You know, it's like there's this predator energy on this planet And his predator energy feeds upon the essence of the spirit Feeds upon the essence of the human being The spirit the mining of the essence the mining of the spirit mining our minds The pollution from that is all of the neurotic distorted Insecure behavior patterns that we develop because in order for this predatory system this disease to work We must not be able to use our minds in a clear coherent manner As one of our philosophers, you know, he's one of our Socrates he's like Socrates, you know, he thinks and he writes And And he's really analyzed the Political system and its ambitions and And what what turns the world, you know, he really understands that and we used to have, you know people like john You know centuries ago But you know, they're few and far between anymore The rains of purification Gently flooding Memories fill my reason Laughing shadows from yesterday Weeping to wash the spirit Continue to struggle Resist Be one with the purification rains The words creation's breath of love Reminders of power Committed service for the earth A people oppressed by the insecurity of the technologic exploiter The people the rain The earth the wind Struggle together For a common liberty I've been doing a lot of reading lately about your transition from political activists to poet to performer and Struck by how many really talented people have rallied around your musical efforts Bob Dylan called your first cassette with jessia davis the album of the year in rolling stone It must be very affirming of your decision to put poetry to music To have to have recognition from these people are them to To look at my work And know that it makes sense to them and i'm communicating something to people that i've listened to Through my life I mean they these are people that influenced me And to have them acknowledge me and however they've acknowledged me, you know it helped It's what fed helped to feed me You know to keep it going a week took a cruise and and he told me he did uh uh poetry reading in northeastern auditorium in minneapolis and He had a tape of it. So we he put the tape on when we was driving down the road and he asked me if I'd Sing a song during one of his poems, you know So we squeezed along and I just started singing a song during it and so he said He said would you come and do it in front of some people, you know, let's try it out November 82 and he sent me a plane ticket to fly to minneapolis So I jumped on airplane grabbed my drum and went over there and got there and she was Opening up a bonny rake concert. It was north of auditorium and it was packed in there. No, man I remember bonny brought us back. She sat us down and she said, uh, I give you as a half hour or so But this is a rock and roll crowd, you know, I think maybe you guys should just do, you know, 15 minutes or something She said because this is rock and roll kind of thing, you get pretty loud. John said bonny, I can get pretty loud myself We did it and she liked it she liked it and and I guess she recorded a little bit of it and played some for jackson So we went in and A few months later and recorded tribal voice When I made tribal voice the whole idea was to take spoken word And put it with More natural and indigenous sounds like the drum and the harmonies and the chance to take these elements and mix them together and see What we could create that could be reproduced on tape uh Using the spoken word with the oldest musical form Brown earth color woman takes me into the secrets of her sides When I step into the brown of her eyes, I find sight of special dreams Fluttering eyelashes and fluttering hearts dancing in magic. No one understands He's a dangerous poet a visionary A champion of indigenous people struggles A man who's come to get the fear of god and celebration of indigenous vibrations. Are you ready? For a blues locked up project fans. Are you ready for the one and the American original? Mr. John Earth is a living entity Earth will not may it is not in man's destiny to destroy the earth That's arrogance What what it is man's destiny to do is destroy civilized man's ability to live with the earth So we as human beings if we use if we take responsibility for our lives and live our lives in a coherent manner as coherent as we possibly can anyway Then we will have an influence in curing this disease But this earth will not allow the antibiotic will come In a planetary sense if it means open up the ozone's and let it let it let it wipe the civilized man out Then the earth will do that the earth will continue on See maybe maybe we should be developing our loyalties to this planet And this earth and our future our descendants More than we should be to governing political systems That have created all these problems See but now we have most people are trying to find solutions to the problems, but they're trying to do it within the confines of The confined abstractions of democracy And so if they're not willing to think objectively about our responsibilities towards our own descendants Then they will come up with no solutions They will only perpetuate the enslavement and feeding Whatever my future is. I'm following the lines I'm following the lines Whatever it is I do whatever unfolds in front of me or where you know, I'm going to follow the lines Whatever forms they take You know, I'm following the lines. It's it's it's the only you know, and um And see how long And see how long I got to participate, you know, it's you know, I really that's what it is. I don't you know, um I mean there are things, you know, I'd like to do I mean I'd like to continue to write and do my music and do whatever it is that I'm doing But in the end it comes back. She gave me the lines to follow And as long as I'm here, I won't fall completely if I follow those lines Because this thing about falling apart. It doesn't go away time doesn't have that magic Distance is one thing, but magic is something else And there are some falling apart. There is no magic can fix it Now you want us now you want us To cry your tears for you After we've already bled for you already been dead to you