CONSTRUCTION OF A SITUATION

Wrong Kind of Green Jan 31, 2016 Whiteness & Aversive Racism

Wrong Kind of Green

January 31, 2016
By Jay Taber

Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos Ancheta, Tulalip Tribes. Photographer Matika Wilbur

In April 2013, when I received an email from the editor of the Cascadia Weekly requesting
background on CERA (The Ku Klux Klan of Indian Country) which had just held an AntiIndian conference in his city I sent him a Letter to the Editor (LTE), which he published. My
letter connected the organized racism to propaganda by coal terminal developers. Responding to
my LTE, the PR guy for fossil fuel export developers next to the local Indian reservation phoned
the editor, expressing his displeasure at his publishing my opinion.

Shortly after, the editor published a column titled A History of Violence, based on my exclusive
feature story at IC Magazine a week earlier. Ten days later, the Institute for Research and
Education on Human Rights in Seattle published a special report titled Take These Tribes Down,
which cited two reports on the Public Good Project website.
Reading my LTE, a local researcher, Sandy Robson, contacted me, requesting historical
background on the Anti-Indian Movement in the Pacific Northwest. By October 2013, she was
ready to go, launching her first expose in Whatcom Watcha local free community newsletter. In
January 2014, Sandy published her detailed account of money-laundering by the export
consortium into the hands of CERA-supporting, Tea Party-led PACs.
In February 2014, the PR guy threatened Whatcom Watch with a SLAPP suit, which led to online
discussions on local blogs and Facebook about Sandys article, and eventually to organizing in
local churches, in particular the Unitarians. At this point, a local Unitarian social justice
committee contacted me, asking for reading materials they could use in adult education and
community forums. In March 2014, Indian Country Today published a feature story on CERA, in
which the reporter quoted me three times. (Her story was based on mine.)
The PR guys response to all this was to get the local corporate-friendly news monopoly to
publish an article claiming the SLAPP suit issue had been amicably resolved, and that the racism
charge was overstated by Robson and me, whom she quoted in her article. This article, in turn,
propelled the incident into the Greater Seattle Earth Ministry milieu (progressive churches),
which began hosting speakers from the targeted Indian tribes, culminating in a national
conference of Unitarians in Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2015.
Video: American Indian Movement:
This video is intended to raise awareness about the American Indian Movement. Often times
educators are prepared and expected to educate students about the Civil Rights Movement. But,
the American Indian Movement is often left out of the history curriculum.

[Jay Taber is an associate scholar of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, a correspondent
to Forum for Global Exchange, and a contributing editor of Fourth World Journal. Since 1994,
he has served as communications director at Public Good Project, a volunteer network of
researchers, analysts and activists engaged in defending democracy. As a consultant, he has
assisted indigenous peoples in the European Court of Human Rights and at the United Nations.
Email: tbarj [at] yahoo.com Website: www.jaytaber.com]
Further reading:

Anti-Indian Conference

A History of Violence

How Property Rights Can Become Property Wrongs

What Would Corporations Do? Native American Rights and the Gateway
Pacific Terminal

Gateway Pacific Terminal Consultant Threatens Journalists

Craig Cole Threatens Libel Suit

Gateway Pacific Terminal Consultant Threatens Journalists at IC Magazine,

Whatcom Watch

Coalgate: The Gateway Pacific Terminal Scandal

Relevant Documents to Libel Threat

Anti-Indian CERA Doesnt Like the Law of the Land in United States, or Us,
Apparently

Citizen Journalism Panel Followup

A Sovereign Nation Stands Tall

Railroading Racism: Warren Buffett vs Northwest Indians

Regions Tribal Leaders Gather In Seattle To Fight Coal Terminal

Wise Use Terrorism

Get in the Know About the Flow. . .Chart / Facebook Post, Sj Robson

On Behalf of the Lummi Nation and Northwest Native Tribes

Celebrating and Protecting the Salish Sea

Faith Groups Join Lummi Nation Fight Against Coal

Interfaith Earth Day: Indigenous Rights, Indignant Wrongs

Public Witness, General Assembly 2015

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