Hello, everybody. It’s Running River here. On behalf of AIM PA [American Indian Movement], I just wanted to send a shout out to a lot of my partners and supporters that have been here from day one with the sweat lodge movement, bringing sweat lodges to Pennsylvania prisons. You know, I wanted to give a real big shout out to Chief Alman Bailey, Good Bear. He has been a very good spiritual advisor. Man, I wish everybody seek out his spiritual advice on native, indigenous teachings. He’s a good guy. He knows his stuff and a true Messiah to me. I wish for everybody to seek him out and earn the wisdom that he has. Chief Alman is a very, very knowledgeable person, and I’ve met a lot of people throughout the years and and I’ve been in Yoruba circles with my African people down in Virginia and stuff. But, I can really say that Chief Alman Good Bear has really affected my life for the better, really changed my life, and somebody I really strive to to be like and emulate, uou know, in my life.
There’s a lot of other people, you know, Grandma Joy Navarre, a [unclear] woman. She’s like a grandmother to me; really was beneficial and helped me reclaim my indigenous identity with my naming ceremony, and her husband, Law Navarre and all the people at Let’s Get Free; Etta, Alan, Sarita and all the work they do with their magazine giving me and my organization a platform to get the word out on indigenous representation and identity here in Pennsylvania and stuff like that. So, that partnership has been amazing, more than a partnership to me. I really take it personal and really call them and consider the folks at Let’s Get Free family, and I can’t forget about my folks at the Cherokee Park United Church, you know a Christian, Christian congregation up there who has definitely been very supportive of indigenous rights and supporting prisoners and all people who have been oppressed. They’ve been on the front lines for civil rights for years and I can definitely speak highly of the alliance that’s been formed between indigenous background people and the Christian faith with, Cherokee Park Alliance, the Cherokee Park United Church up there. They’ve been very, very useful. Susan Strebig, Pastor Matthias, her husband, and everybody there at Cherokee Park. It’s been, it’s been very, very heartwarming having such good people, you know, have your back in this, in this fight for civil rights.
But the fight isn’t over, because here at SCI Fayette, you know, I put in for to have another sweat lodge brought into the prison system, and I’m going to be calling everybody to stand in solidarity with me and force this Department of Corrections and this prison here at SCI Fayette to honor the rights of indigenous prisoners and build a fence so that we can have a sweat lodge. That’s how they’re trying to get over not giving the sweat lodges to the to the prisoners here in SCI Fayette. They’re refusing to build a fence. So please stand in solidarity with me and join this campaign to bring sweat lodges to SCI Fayette. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
