In the Fall of 2001, Blue Clan Chief Mr. Millard Shelton and myself were
returning home from a meeting and, since we were in the neighborhood,
decided to visit the Oakville Indian Mounds. We do this occasionally to pay
our respects to our ancestors who are buried there. As you know, these are
the very same mounds located in Lawrence County, Alabama where the Lawrence
County Jaycees held their now infamous "Trail of Fears" Halloween carnival
in 2000, the very same mounds where many of our people (including yourself)
protested against this desecration of our ancestral burial ground, the very
same mounds where our non-violent brothers and sisters were sprayed in the
eyes with pepper spray, handled in a rough fashion by deputies of the
Lawrence County Sheriff's Department, hand-cuffed, arrested and taken to
jail for nothing more than standing up for the rights of indigenous people
everywhere. Lest anyone forget, Mr. Butch Walker who is head of the Alabama
Indian Education program in Lawrence County and who also oversees the use
and upkeep of the Oakville Indian Mounds park, was personally responsible
for this fiasco. Had Butch not actively sought to host this egregious event
in the Oakville park, the "Trail of Fears" would never have occurred. In my
opinion, there is only one word with which to adequately describe Butch
Walker's relationship with the Indian people. That word is "TRAITOR". In
every essence of the word, in every fiber of his being, he has betrayed the
Indian people for his own personal gain in a manner that cannot and should
not be tolerated. I firmly believe that he would do and/or say anything to
further enhance his perceived status in the eyes of those who would defile
our ancestors, traditions and culture.To our amazement and horror, Butch Walker had once again purposefully
desecrated our ancestor's sacred resting place. He had laid out the route
for the Chickasaw Trails Run cross-country track meet, which is sponsored by
the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA), in such a way that it
ran about one-third up and across one side of the large ceremonial mound.
Evidently, the track meet had occurred several days before and Butch hadn't
had time to properly remove all of the evidence. He had also erected both
start and finish gates within 100 feet of the ceremonial and burial mounds,
respectively, by digging holes for large posts that were sunk into the
ground. Notification of Butch's heinous actions, the adverse viewpoint of
the local Indian people, and a strong request that this not be allowed to
occur again were filed with the appropriate Lawrence County Board of
Education authorities.We have recently found out that Butch intends to once again host the AHSAA
track meet(s) in the Oakville mounds park. The date advertised in one local
paper was November 2002. Not trusting information in the local papers to be
entirely correct, I went to AHSAA's official web site for verification. If
you follow the links provided below, it is evident that they (Butch and the
ASHAA) are planning to hold not one but two track meet events this fall in
the Oakville mounds park, one in September and another in October.
Interestingly enough, no meet is scheduled for the publicized November date.
You can draw your own conclusions concerning that one!Below are links to web pages that give the details of each meet. The
contact identified for more information is a Coach Stan Johnson of the Jesse
Owens Runners Club who can be reached at one of the following phone numbers.
School - 256-905-2440, Home - 256-974-1529, and Cell - 256-412-5688. If we
can get enough people to contact him and express our concerns, it might at
least open his eyes to the feeling of the true Indian community. By "true"
Indian community, I mean that Mr. Johnson is obviously listening to Butch
Walker at this time and may honestly believe that Butch is promoting the
wishes of the Indian people. I would prefer to reserve judgment on Mr.
Johnson until such time as he is presented with the facts about Butch's
selfish motives and the total disrespect that Butch has shown many times
over the past several years for the Indian community.
Here is the link to the Chickasaw Trails Run scheduled for September 7, 2002
http://www.milesplit.com/meet.php?MeetID=2248&Site=MileSplit
<http://www.milesplit.com/meet.php?MeetID=2248&Site=MileSplit>Here is the link to the Jessie Owens Classic scheduled for October 5, 2002
http://www.milesplit.com/meet.php?MeetID=2281&Site=MileSplit
<http://www.milesplit.com/meet.php?MeetID=2281&Site=MileSplit>Here is the link to the ASHAA contacts page. No individual person is named;
it's just a mailing address, physical address, phone number, and fax number.
http://www.ahsaa.com/contacts/ <http://www.ahsaa.com/contacts/>Here is the link to the ASHAA 4A-6A schedule page. You can also find the
meet links above listed here on the official schedule.
http://www.alabamarunners.com/ <http://www.alabamarunners.com/>For those who are not familiar with the "Trail of Fears" incident mentioned
above, please follow the link below and prepare to be enlightened/enraged.
This web site is dedicated to the Oakville Indian Mounds Trail of Fears
Protest of October 2000. Visitors who would like to read a day-by-day
detailed account of what actually occurred at the Oakville mounds should
click on the "Journal" tab. To those responsible for creating and
maintaining this site and its beautiful graphics, I offer my never-ending
gratitude.
http://oakville-indian-mounds-protest.cjb.net/
<http://oakville-indian-mounds-protest.cjb.net/>With deepest regards,
Jack Stone
Blue Clan Vice-Chief
Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama
--
André Cramblit: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com)
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