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Meet the presidential candidates: Kent Mesplay Posted: December 21, 2007 by: Gale Courey Toensing Indian Country Today  Photo courtesy of Kent Mesplay -- Kent Mesplay, Blackfoot, is seeking the Green Party nomination for president. He promises to bring Indian country issues to the forefront during his campaign.  LA MESA, Calif. - For those who are disillusioned with the presidential offerings of the entrenched two-party system, the 2008 elections may provide an opportunity to vote for a ''native son'' who supports a number of policy positions that resonate in Indian country.  Kent Mesplay, who is of Blackfoot heritage, is seeking the Green Party nomination for president. The Green Party is strong on the environment, social justice, community-based economics and other values that mesh harmoniously with traditional values.  Looking at the field of Democratic and Republican candidates, Mesplay says they are ''just two sides of a long trail of broken promises.''  ''As a presidential candidate and as a 'native son,' I can bump this competition up a notch. After I receive my party's nomination during this primary season, I will make the interparty presidential debates more interesting and applicable to indigenous people by mentioning such unmentionable words as 'genocide' on the campaign trial,'' Mesplay told Indian Country Today.  Indeed, indigenous issues will be a central theme of his campaign, Mesplay said.  ''I want to provide a voice to those throughout Indian country to raise issues that have not been raised on the campaign trail, to talk about the importance of sovereignty as far as the independence it's supposed to afford tribal people, but also because of the obligation the federal government has. I think it's critical where there are debts that need to be paid by the federal government these need to be paid as soon as possible, where money has been held in trust for lands that have basically been stolen, where treaties haven't been honored. The late Vine Deloria Jr. was a close family friend,'' Mesplay said by way of explanation for his positions.  Mesplay has a varied cultural, experiential and educational background.  He earned a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. After graduating, he worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach and taught high school math. In 2001, he began working as an air quality inspector at the Air Pollution Control District in San Diego, a job he holds today and really enjoys, he said.  He became a registered, active member of the Green Party in 1995.  ''I was particularly impressed by the social justice aspect of the Green Party. It's not just about saving endangered species; it's much broader and deeper than that as far as basic policies go,'' Mesplay said.  But Mesplay's unique early life experiences with his Lutheran missionary parents - Blackfoot father and German-Scottish mother - were likely the most formative.  ''As far as my Native background goes, my life purpose and the reason why I'm here has to do with helping people develop sustainability, achieving and maintaining self-reliance,'' Mesplay said.  ''I didn't grow up on the reservation. I grew up in an environment that in many respects is even more primitive than some of our more isolated reservations. My dad picked the least hospitable place on the planet that you could think of: he chose Papua, New Guinea,'' Mesplay said with a laugh.  ''So I grew up with Stone Age people in the middle of the rain forest. We didn't have television or even telephones. We captured rainwater for drinking and had a garden. There was a small air strip where we had provisions flown in, but we were largely self-reliant and that's part of who I am as a person.''  Sustainability and self reliance are crucial to security, Mesplay said.  ''As a nation, we're really living outside our needs. We import 80 percent of the food we eat. We import energy. In some parts of the country, we import water. In the time of any crunch - be it environmental or from terrorists - people are better off if they have their needs met in the community or in the region.''  But the government and large businesses don't like that, he added.  ''They act more in terms of stripping away wealth and breaking down people who are largely independent. That's what they've done with the tribes and the nations over the years. That's what they're doing internationally now.''  Mesplay said he looks at tribal communities as role models, ''not as some relic of the past that we need to be ashamed of, but as models of the future in terms of how we need to work together cooperatively rather than this crazy competition and the rat race people are in.''  Mesplay doesn't have or need a separate Indian health care policy, because the Green Party supports universal health care.  ''We see health care as a human right, and the U.S. is a wealthy enough country to have a truly universal health care system than will cover everyone,'' he said.  Mesplay said he is undergoing the same process of self-definition that many people of mixed ancestry face.  ''What I see as being the challenge for people everywhere, and especially indigenous people who have had change thrust upon them in a hurry, is to decide what do we keep from our cultural and our traditions and what do we bring in to augment or supplement them?''  Technology, for example, is a tool that can help or hinder, depending on its use, Mesplay said.  ''They can help people survive, but of course if there are going to be power lines put in, the elders need to be asked first, tradition has to be followed. ... So I'm interesting in helping sacred sites survive where people are sensitive to the energies that have gone before. These are voices that need to be heard. I know that climate change is real, not just because of computer modeling and the science, but because I've been listening to people in Indian country coming forth with some information, for example, that's come out of the Hopi that the weather is changing. And there are signs that this is a time to live a very intentional life and to be very careful, not just with what we do, but also with our thoughts.''  If Mesplay doesn't win the presidency - a possibility that has occurred to him, he said with a laugh - he plans to center his life work around tribal people both in the United States and internationally.  ''I have a good understanding of the problems we face on different levels and I have a lot to offer as a candidate, but it's not just about being in a political party; it's about creating a better way of life.''  More information on Mesplay is available at www.mesplay.org.  http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416340  

I am reading Walleye Warrior, by Walt Bresette and Rick Whaley - about the treaty rights struggles in Wisconsin in the last decades of the last century.  It's beginning chapters give an overview of relations between Wisconsinites and the tribes in Wisconisn and a review of US - tribal history, and the many "treaties" and their intents/affects.  It also reminds us of Rep. Obey's participation in the move to deny treaty rights.  Bruce Hinkforth, Jim Young, and Jeff Peterson are all mentioned in the book, as well as some other real life characters you may recognize from our Green circle.  I moved here to Wisconsin when the struggles were at their height, and attended a demonstration at the Capitol - at the same time I was studying about the Navajo language - I got to meet a man from the Navajo nation that had come to participate in solidarity in the demonstration, and listen to the cadence of his voice, molded by his language.  I wish I had participated as a witness up north in those years, but was present with other beings then.  My heart sings with admiration to read the below!  My favorite paragraphs are starred.  			Jill Bussiere, Ahnapee River Green Party  Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US  December 20, 2007, AFP  http://afp.google. <http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA> com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA  WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.  "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.  A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.  They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.  Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.  The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.  The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.  The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.  Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.  "This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.  "It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," said Means.  *******The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.  ********Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row," Means said.  One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.  "We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.  The US "annexation" of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people," said Means.  Oppression at the hands of the US government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies -- less than 44 years -- in the world.  Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.  "Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young.  "We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.  

 
Dear Conservationist,
Scientists have told us that we need to begin addressing global warming immediately, and over 70% of Wisconsinites agree that they want to see our state leaders take action. 
Earlier this year, a handful of legislators proposed a bill called The Wisconsin Safe Climate Act (SB 81 and AB 157).  This plan will develop a science-based, step-by-step plan to reduce Wisconsin's global warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. 
Unfortunately, while there is broad public support for tackling global warming, legislators are not convinced that this is an issue that matters deeply to citizens.   
The good news is that the Senate Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing on The Wisconsin Safe Climate Act on Tuesday, September 25th at 10 AM in the Capitol, Room 411 South.  This hearing is a make-it or break-it moment for global warming legislation in Wisconsin--without overwhelming support on September 25th, this bill will not make it out of committee, which means we might not see any good bills on global warming until 2009.  And that is too long to wait.        
In order to get this bill out of committee, the most important thing you can do is plan to attend the hearing in Madison on September 25th and plan to speak, telling the committee members why you are concerned about global warming and urging them to bring this bill to a vote.  If there is no way you can attend, you can also submit a letter which we will be happy to turn in on September 25th.  
If you think you might be able to attend, please let me know ASAP.  If you cannot attend but can write a letter, please email a copy to jessica@conservationvoters.org. 
For more background information on The Wisconsin Safe Climate Act, click on:  http://www.conservationvoters.org/WLCVI/Public/index.php?regID=2&pageID=5
The time to act on global warming is now!
Jessica L. Garrels
Northeast Organizer
Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Institute
1642 Western Avenue
Green Bay, WI 54303
Office: (920) 429-9008