April 11, 2013
Barry Carter
Chairperson, Occoneechee-Saponi Indian Tribe of Virginia
Subject: Uranium Mining
Dear members of the Virginia General Assembly:
I am strongly opposed to uranium mining or milling in the state of Virginia and I write to you to provide you with the unassimilated Indigenous perspective on uranium mining. As our people have been saying since Europeans came here, “When will you stop?” When one considers the horrors that uranium mining will bring, one is reminded of another quote our people have said for centuries, “Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will the white man understand that money cannot be eaten.”
Our people have been living in this land, that you now call Virginia, for tens of thousands of years and had maintained it in pristine condition up until 1492. Indigenous people had lived in harmony with Mother Earth for hundreds of thousands of years. Since coming to our land, and bringing the thinking and ways from Europe, we have seen our sacred land polluted, raped and ravaged from a form of thinking and behavior that is alien to ALL Indigenous life on Mother Earth. For one thousand years prior to coming here, Europeans had experienced a continuous hellish Dark Ages of war, violence, suffering, genocide, poverty,murder, rape, filth, disorder, pandemics, savagery, insanity, imbalance and disease. It was one thousand years of the worst kind of hell that one could imagine.
The same fragmented thinking that created hell in Europe has now created a hell in our home of polluted land,polluted air, polluted water, toxic foods, global warming, species extermination, kidnapping, slavery, genocide, disease, racism, theft, drugs,addictions, disease, unhealthy diets, corruption, greed, over-population,over-development, ignorance and weak, lazy, spoiled, obese people. You literally have all of us now living in filth. All of the rivers in Virginia are now polluted with mercury, PCBs or other toxins according to your own DEQ website and still you do not learn. After thousands of years of us eating clean, healthy fish from the Roanoke River, my people are now limited to one fish per month, due to the toxins in the fish from the European way of interacting with Mother Earth. This is according to government signs posted around Kerr Lake and on the Roanoke River. And still you have not learned.
You were able to come out of your dark ages, not by changing the thinking or actions that got you into it or growing your way out, but ONLY by STEALING 25% of the world’s wealth, in 1492--the entire Western hemisphere (our continent Turtle Island, that you call North and South America). Not having learned the lesson of the European Dark Ages you are now set on plunging our land and the entire world into a Dark Age. European Adam Smith, in his seminal 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, which is considered the bible of European thought, exposes the flaws of the European fragmented thinking that produces hell in your wake. He says the world works best when each individual looks out for his or her own self interest. His views are accepted as absolute regarding human nature and civilization. However, Indigenous people worldwide, for virtually all of human history (hundreds of thousands of years), did not live by the European Smith rule of selfishness and greed.
Indigenous people worldwide, lived based upon generosity, communal-family living, balance and gift economies where the more one gave the wealthier one became. For hundreds of thousands of years brown Indigenous people worldwide lived on Mother Earth in harmony, in community and based upon generosity. Christopher Columbus said, “The Indians are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something the have,they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone. . ..” In 1542 European Bartoleme de Las Casas documented in his book, A Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies: “And of all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful. . .They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world.. . .they are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy.
Smith, and the European way of selfishness, is wrong because it is not sustainable. It is a long term giant ponzy scheme which is based upon theft, rape and murder and will eventually crash as it did for the 1,000 years of the European Dark Ages. It is theft, for example with uranium mining, because some will get the benefit today and others now and in the future will have to pay with their shortened and painful lives, birth defects, pain and suffering. And using Adam Smith’s logic as Virginia state senator Richard Saslaw has said, “I won’t be around then . . . I can’t be concerned about what might happen 100 years from now”. . . . “I'm not going to be here." Way to go selfish Adam!! When in the 1800’s Chief Seattle said, “the white man kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care, this is exactly what he was talking about.
I want to be very clear in what I am saying to you so that 5, 10 to 20 years from now you cannot say,“nobody told me this was coming.” I am merely a messenger sent to deliver you as unassimilated message from my Native ancestors. Before the European invasion there were many prophecies of the coming of a light skinned race and what it would mean. The Prophecy of the Seventh Fire is just one: http://www.the7thfire.com/7thfire.htm. It says, “expect a race of people who have light skin. The light-skinned race might wear the face of death or the face of brotherhood. If they come carrying a weapon,beware, behind this face is greed. You shall recognize the face of death if the rivers are poisoned and the fish are unfit to eat." The Roanoke River is already poisoned with mercury and PCB’s and fish that we have been eating for thousands of years, are no longer fit to eat. And this goes for all of the rivers in the state of Virginia according to your Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s website.
The fragment thinking that you brought from Europe, that you call analysis, has you in a war with God, whom we refer to as Wakan Tanka. It is a war that you cannot win. For Mother Earth is Wanka Tanka. Even your latest science, quantum physics, has shown that there is no separation. There is only one undivided whole universe as our ancestors told you when you came. The rape and destruction that you do to Mother Earth, you do Wanka Tanka and you do to yourself. As chief Seattle said, “The Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
So what Walter Coles, Patrick Wales, VUI and the politicians, who have taken money from these people and will eventually vote to lift the ban, have done is to merely follow the European Adam Smith rule of only being concerned with one’s own self interest. And this is what you have been doing since 1492. My point, and what our people have been trying to tell you, since that time, is that fragmented thinking is bankrupt because it is contrary to the reality of the universe which is oneness. Fragmented and fear thinking can only lead to long term collapse, pain, death and hell. It is a lesson that you did not learn from the European Dark Ages. And you have not learned from all of your polluting, murdering and destroying. Selfishness is a giant ponzy scheme that is destined to collapse and we are getting close. There is only so far that any ponzy scheme can be pushed before going over the line, and uranium mining in Virginia is one of those lines that YOU MUST NOT CROSS!
The waste products from uranium mining contain vast amounts of the most toxic substances known to life on the planet and these substances stay radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years as explained in the articles: “Uranium the Deadliest Metal” and “URANIUM: Known Facts and Hidden Dangers” written by Dr. Gordon Edwards. The safe storage of tailings is impossible, thus it is not a matter of if the toxic waste by-products will contaminate the environment, it is only a matter of when. And when the environment gets contaminated millions of people, yet to be born, will be killed prematurely, and millions of others will live horrid lives with unspeakable birth defects, pain and suffering. The millions of people that are guaranteed to be killed or maimed over hundreds of thousands of years, by uranium mining in Virginia, will produce the greatest holocaust in human history dwarfing the combined deaths,pain and suffering of the Jewish holocaust with six million people, the Native American holocaust with over 75 million people and millions of African slaves in America. There will be hundreds of millions and likely billions who will be killed, maimed and suffer in this holocaust if uranium mining is done in Virginia.
Science, logic, studies, politics and analysis are the sole tools being used by most, if not all, authoritarians to decide if uranium mining will be done in Virginia. These tools are far too limited, weak and feeble to make a decision of this magnitude. This is due to the limits of science and the devastating and long lived risks of uranium mining. The problem is that science, logic and analysis are not absolute, as we’ve been led to believe. In fact they are severely limited. This is due to the limits of science and the devastating and long lived risks of uranium mining. The problem is that science, logic and analysis are not absolute, as we’ve been led to believe. In fact they are severely limited. Science is the process of using logic and analysis in making decisions based upon the best empirical evidence available at the time of the decision, regardless of how little of the evidence in the universe is available to the decision maker at that time. Thus, if we only have 1% of the knowledge, that exists in the universe available to us when a decision needs to be made, then science says we use ONLY the 1% to make the best decision at that time. Eventually, when more knowledge materializes, and the theory is found to be wrong, it is adjusted for it later.
The problem with using science to decide on uranium mining is that there is no later. Once the toxins are released into the environment no adjustment can be made and millions will die. Science is why we continually hear news reports regarding some chemical or drug which has been studied and used for years and decades suddenly discovered to have unexpected horrid side effects. To a large degree science is based upon ignorance and therefore is more of a superstition than the absolute religion that you make it out to be. Assumptions are made ignoring the relative level of information that is unavailable and not known. And this ignorant way of thinking, has had devastating environmental and other consequences on our continent since 1492. The question that you must ask yourself is, if your science is so great why has it delivered the world into the horrible condition that it is now in, in only a few hundred years, and if our thinking was so primitive, how did Indigenous people sustain the planet in balance for hundreds of thousands of years.
Even if science theoretically said that uranium mining could be done safely, science simply cannot be trusted, by its own definition of what science is, with something as devastating and as long lasting as uranium poisoning, again because it does not know what it does not know. Please keep in mind that the very definition of what science is says that all of today’s scientific theories are guaranteed to be wrong and overturned in the coming decades or centuries. Thus any rational-scientific decision regarding uranium mining today is 100% guaranteed to be wrong and when confirmed later it will be too late for billions of people. Even guessing one has a better chance of being right than science.
Uranium has never been mined safely anywhere in the world. The National Academy of Sciences, who conducted the study for the state of Virginia, did not focus on the uranium mining industry’s track record. The representative for the NAS stated, in one 2012 Coal and Energy Commission meeting, that they did this because the industry record was so bad that it would distort the report! Instead their focus was to pick and choose best theoretical practices from various mines and thus “theoretical uranium mining”. This makes no sense! As statisticians, scientists, futurists and most people know the best indicator of the future is the past, and the best indicator of reality is reality and not theory. What is theoretically possible and what companies and employees actually do never match. I spent 25 years managing in some of the biggest and best companies in the world. There are always violations of regulations and variations from theory and policy. The fact is the industry’s track record tells us what we will be getting in Virginia.
The decision regarding uranium mining is a decision for heart and soul and not science. This is a spiritual decision. Understanding the devastating consequences of fragmented thinking, my Native American ancestors, for many thousands of years stayed away from it. We called it the “bad mind”. Instead we used heart, soul and spiritual thinking to make decisions and keep this land pure. We refer to spiritual thinking as the good mind. From a spiritual, heart and soul perspective we ALL know that uranium mining is wrong because it is murder. From a spiritual perspective we know this is the wrong thing to do to our children, their children, and future generations when we think from the heart. From a spiritual perspective we know that some getting the benefits now and our descendants being saddled with the burden of contamination for hundreds of thousands of years is THEFT and wrong! Again look at the polluted world that your science has created where cancer and disease is the norm. Doing the same thing over and over with the expectation of a different result is the definition of insanity. Knowing that millions will die later while some get the benefits now makes it a mass murder ponzy scheme and evil. Our Indigenous ancestors understood the evil that lay within fragmented thought from the head while discounting the heart. This fragmented thought is why you in a war with Wakan Tanka.
The Prophecy of the Seventh Fire goes on to say, “The Fifth Prophet said that in the time of the Fifth Fire there will be a struggle between the way of the mind of the light-skinned people and the natural path of spirit of the many nations of natural people."As this fire loses its heat the way of the mind of light skinned people will promise great joy and salvation. If the people accept this promise and abandon the old ways, the struggle will continue for many generations. This promise is false and it will nearly destroy those who accept it." Our people, who were not killed in the holocaust of 75 to 100 million people,were literally kidnapped and forced to abandon and forget our culture, names, languages, spirituality, thinking and worldview and accept the way of the mind of your people. Being natural people we were “domesticated” and forced to assimilate and accepted the false “promise of great joy and salvation” of the way of the mind as the only truth. Remember, your mantra “kill the Indian save the man”. How do people make a conscious decision to kill 75 to 100 million people and then pretend that it never happened? The answer lies in Adam Smith’s fragmented thinking, that enables denial, the same as many are seeking to lift the ban, do the same thing and deny the deaths caused!
When we look at holocausts of the past, we ask ourselves, what were the people thinking who allowed this to happen. How did Hitler kill millions? How did Columbus kill millions and you still celebrate him with a national holiday. The answer is fragmented thinking, denial and a detachment from spirit, heart and soul. People who use science, logic, politics and analysis as their decision making tool, take what seem to be innocent actions, but in reality this fragmentation produces evil and thus is evil. Fragmentation is evil because it is the opposite of the whole – oneness. This is why Black Hawk, Sauk said, “how smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.” Analysis and fragmentation give you the slick ability to make poison sound appealing. As I listened to Patrick Wales speak in front of the Coal and Energy Commission on January 7, 2013 I was reminded of Black Hawk’s quote. And when I sit and watch politicians advocate for uranium mining I see the logic and thinking of Hitler, Columbus and selfish Adam Smith.
ALL who followed and supported holocausts of the past did not listen to their heart, soul and spirit, just as many of you today are ready and itching to pull that holocaust trigger and allow uranium mining to begin. And we Natives of Turtle Island know better than anyone how itchy your holocaust trigger finger can be with you having murdered 75 million plus of our people for selfishness and greed. In addition, we have the highest per capita death rate from uranium mining than any other group. In the past 50 years you have continued the holocaust of our people with uranium mining and still you do not learn.
You have told our Indigenous ancestors since 1492 that our holistic, spiritual, indigenous ways of living,thinking and viewing the world from heart and soul was primitive, backwards,wrong and savage. You have told us that the only way to think is then on-feeling, “unbiased”, soulless, analytical, fragmented, logical,self-interest, dead, “civilized” way brought from Europe. This is THE BIG lie! We were shamed, beaten, murdered, tortured and left no choice except to abandon spiritual thinking from the heart and soul and to accept logic and science, the “way of the mind” as absolute. I ask you as human beings to stand up and proudly say I am making my decision to never allow uranium mining in Virginia, based 100% upon heart, soul and spirit and not be ashamed that you are not using science.
The Prophecy of the Seventh Fire goes on to say “The Sixth Prophet told them that in thetime of Sixth Fire it would be clear that the promise accepted during the Fifth Fire was false. (the way of the mind of the light skinned people-fragmented and soulless analysis). . .Many people will be out of balance and the cup of life will become the cup of grief." This is what some are just now awakening to. You have already gone too far in your destruction on our land, but uranium mining in what you call Virginia, puts things in a entirely different category and takes you far over a line that you must not cross.
Let me be clear. I hear people condemning others for not using cold, “unbiased” logic in their uranium mining decision. They make claims that those decisions, not using logic, are being made based upon “emotion”. Making decisions from spirit, heart and soul is NOT emotion. It is not scatter brained hysteria. It is not ignorance. It is making decisions by tapping into the infinite, oneness of Wakan Tanka—the source of all knowledge in the universe that you are just now beginning to understand through quantum physics. Spiritual, heart and soul thinking is what has enabled Indigenous people worldwide to maintain a planet in balance for hundreds of thousands of years, where your logic and science has it on the verge of destruction in a couple hundred years.
Our decision to oppose uranium mining in Virginia is not based upon wooly-headed emotion. It is based,explanations contained within this document, plus 521 years of tangible andreal experience dealing with you and your selfish Adam Smith ways from Europe. Our experience shows that your promises of peace, safety and harmony, when your eyes are focused on money, are always false, manipulation and trickery. As Chief Joseph, Nez Perce said, “I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises of the whites. There has been too much talking by those who had no right to talk. It does not require many words to speak the truth. As the saying goes, “if one thinks they can trust the government or white men seeking their fortunes telling you that everything is going to be fine, just ask an American Indian.” To put it in simple terms who should we trust with our children’s lives:Patrick Wales, Walter Coles, politicians, scientists (all firmly entrenched in the Adam Smith doctrine or heart-spirit-Wakan Tanka?
Analytical, fragmented, scientific,“unbiased” thought leaves one detached from soul. And it most certainly has a bias. The bias is against soul and thus against Wakan Tanka—thewhole. And your quantum physics is beginning to reveal this to you.The detachment from soul leaves you detached from your mother, Mother Earth,family, the trees, rivers, animals and Wakan Tank. As Chief Seattle observed this detachment he stated the following, “ And your quantum physics is beginning to reveal this to you.The detachment from soul leaves you detached from your mother, Mother Earth,family, the trees, rivers, animals and Wakan Tank. As Chief Seattle observed this detachment he stated the following, “We know that the whiteman does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father's grave behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His father's grave, and his children's birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.”
There is no free lunch. Our native belief is that once we pass from this life we have to repair the damage that we do in this life. Imagine what that would mean for you if you ever vote yes on uranium mining. The land upon which youst and right now is made of the bodies, blood, bones and souls of our ancestors of tens of thousands of years. We literally are this land and will always be. Their tens of millions of souls and their massive spiritual power still reside here. You do what you do ONLY because they allow it. You must remember that you are mere visitors here and a minority in our land. Today on the single land mass that we call Turtle Island (that you call North and South America) there are 600 million brown Natives and only 200 million whites. From all aspects (spiritual and physical) you are a mere visitor and a minority here.
And I am telling you there are lines that you MUST NOT cross as a visitor and a minority in our land (a land foreign to you) which operates on rules you know nothing about. I remind you of what white “wild west” artist, Fredrick Remington said in 1889, “no white man can ever penetrate the mystery of the Indian mind nor explain the reason of their acts.” He said, “the red man is a mass of glaring incongruities. He . . . is constant and inconstant at such unusual times, that I often think he has no mental process . . . .” As minorities and foreigners you must learn to walk softly. You are dealing with powers far beyond your ability to understand, much less control(as your science of chaos theory has recently revealed to you). There is enormous power in that rock along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge and it is there for a purpose. There have been many desecrations on our land in what you call Virginia including the murder of two million of our Siouan people between 1492 and 1601. But this will dwarf even that and there will be nothing anyone can do to help you whether in this life or the next.
Please remember before coming to our land many prophecies foretold of your coming and your fate, including your leaving. The prophecy of the Seventh Fire continues with, “The Light-skinned people will be given a choice between two paths. If they choose the wrong path, remaining on the path of the mind, then the destruction they brought with them will come back to destroy them. The people of the earth will experience much suffering and death.”
I am just a messenger sent with a message for you, ensuring that you have been given this message. The choice is now yours. I have done my job!
Sincerely;
Barry Carter
Chairperson, Occoneechee-Saponi Indian Tribe of Virginia