Just getting this out there for everyone to see.
https://traditionalamericanindianalliance.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/39/comment-page-1/#comment-7RED WARRIOR DECEIT
OPEN LETTER: June 19, 2017
ATTN: American Indian Camp Sponsors & Resistance Organizers
RE: “Red Warriors” are Non-Indian Anarchists Exploiting the Indigenous Rights Movement
Dear American Indian Camp Sponsors & Indigenous Resistance Organizers:
Please be aware that the so-called “Red Warrior” group is NO LONGER an indigenous organization.
The Red Warriors were founded by a group of respected Lakota, but these Lakota have lost control of this organization and it has been co-opted/taken over by mostly white and Latino Anarchists of the “Insurrectionary Anarchist” school who utilize “Black Bloc” Anarchist techniques. These persons didn’t respect the wishes of traditional Lakota, who made non-Indian participation in the Standing Rock NO-DAPL resistance contingent on all groups abiding by the tenets of non-violence. In conjunction with some wrong-headed Indians, they often initiated violence via stealth with white law enforcement. At least one staged provocation (which I will discuss more below) and the violence that ensued, is what finally gave the Army Corps of Engineers and the Feds the leverage they needed to close the camps. As they did so, the Feds pressured the corrupt Standing Rock Tribal Council to almost openly collude with them and to intimidate the true traditional elders into silence.
The agenda of the Red Warriors was NOT to stop the DAPL pipeline. For those who don’t know, the desire that unites all Anarchists is the destruction of the state aka all forms of government. “Insurrectionary Anarchists” believe that the only way to do this is through violence that they hope will lead to an “insurrection”. They often use “Black Bloc” techniques. These are techniques to disguise their appearance when engaging in violent acts to decrease the likelihood of being caught. This is why the Lakota elders at Standing Rock asked everyone NOT to conceal their faces.
The larger goal of Insurrectionary Anarchists is to create a cycle of violent interactions with police in as many localities as possible. As order collapses and police response becomes more repressive, critical mass may be achieved and a violent revolution in the USA will begin. The more violence, the more momentum and hopefully a revolution. Basically, we Lakota were seen as expendable pawns who could be lied to, exploited and sacrificed as necessary stepping stones in the pursuit of this Anarchist Revolution.
And we (the Lakota) were sacrificed. If all the camp participants had listened to the Traditional Lakota Elders and kept our movement non-violent…we would still likely be encamped near the DAPL pipeline blocking its completion. They would have never been able to shut us down. But the actions of these mostly white “Red Warriors” feed right into the narrative sought by the feds and ETP. The corporate enemy was saying we were “Violent Indian militants, working with violent, non-Indian, radical agitators and were terrifying poor local white men, women and children. As a result we were standing in the way of energy independence & progress.” Basically a modern re-tooling of the Manifest Destiny narrative. And the Red Warriors gave it to them. They didn’t defend minorities from toxic water, they actually brought it upon us.
Lakota Akichita (Soldier/Warrior) tradition is this, “We always seek a peaceful resolution to every situation until no other option is available.” We remain non-violent and seek peace until it is no longer possible. This is what the elders were trying to do. This is why they demanded non-violent direct actions. However, the point of “…no other option available…” did arrive. This is when we controlled the North Camp (in the direct path of the pipeline) and also held the strategic ground where the Drill Pad would be established. I was there. I saw the Red Warriors take the Drill Pad location. But after I was arrested and finally released after seven days, I discovered that the Red Warriors had done nothing to hold that ground and it was then in ETP’s hand. If Lakota Akichita were going to take a stand like our warriors did at Wounded Knee in 1973, this was the place. And we thought the Red Warriors had decided to do this because they had muscled in and took the Drill Pad land. Please note that I am a real Akichita, a member of an old Lakota warrior society and was made an Akichita in the traditional way. This is why I am exposing the Red Warriors. It is my duty as a protector of the Oyate (aka the Lakota Nation/People). I also want to protect other tribes from this exploitation.
That shared, hindsight is always 20/20. Once we Traditional Lakota finally learned that the Red Warriors were just a bunch of Insurrectionary Anarchists, their actions finally all made sense. They:
Hid their faces and engaged in violence for months which worked AGAINST our narrative of non-violence and thus peacefully stopping the pipeline.
When the opportunity to actually stop the pipeline came by taking the Drill Pad ground, they made everyone think they were going to, then suddenly abandoned it.
Immediately following the loss of that ground, they again began to engage in unnecessary violence that undermined our narrative of non-violent resistance. This narrative was the only thing allowing us to keep the camp going and thereby able to maintain the threat posed by thousands of people rushing the Drill Pad if drilling began.
The Red Warriors did this because they NEVER intended to stop the pipeline. If they took the Drill Pad ground and made a stand, they would have been trapped there and likely would have gone to jail like many did at Wounded Knee in 1973. There was no way these white & Latino Anarchists were going to let their identities become known or serve long jail sentences. It would have prevented them from waging violent actions elsewhere to bring about their revolution.
But it doesn’t stop there. The Anarchist presence (both Red Warrior and other) at NO-DAPL was huge. Through a coordinated effort, Anarchists clandestinely infiltrated many essential services/departments and began to enact their agenda whenever possible. The best examples of this was their heavily infiltration of the Medic Center and the Legal Collective. They utilized the Medic Center as a location for gathering intelligence from other activists (as patients) and as a secondary base to secretly plan prohibited violent direct actions outside the main Red Warrior encampment.
Those of you who were at Standing Rock/No-DAPL saw for yourselves the private Red Warrior camp they created and staffed by their own security. It was clear to even the casual passerby, that the vast majority (perhaps 90%) of the membership was white. How on earth can a supposed indigenous organization be 90% white and still call itself Indigenous? How did this happen?
The Red Warriors were created by a group of Lakota who decided to utilize a system whereby any hopeful member would have to be introduced and vouched for by an existing member. This system was designed to prevent the infiltration that had occurred during movements in the ‘70s and would have worked if the Red Warriors had simply restricted their membership to Natives only…but they didn’t. Gradually non-Indian Anarchists (who had been vouched for by Natives) joined and (in turn) were afforded the same privilege of vouching for others. They of course vouched for their Anarchist allies and the whole organization was eventually co-opted. This reality gradually dawned on the true Traditional Lakota as well as the “Government Dog” Lakota. Both wanted the Red Warriors out, but for very different reasons. That said, this sadly brings me to the American Indian Movement’s (AIM’s) involvement in this.
This deeply saddens me, but it is clear that factions within AIM and individual AIM members are making introductions for “Red Warriors” (both as individuals and as groups) to assist them in their infiltration of our Indigenous resistance camps/actions throughout the US. Certain AIM factions also absorbed some Red Warriors when they officially disbanded their presence at Standing Rock in early December, 2016. What some people in AIM are thinking is beyond me, but it is happening and must be addressed. In the 1970’s, AIM made a similar mistake. At that time, AIM’s gradual movement away from traditional leadership like Fools Crow and towards alliances with violent, white, leftist groups contributed to many Traditional Lakota distancing themselves. As a result the movement began losing momentum. Russel Means had spoken about this (in part) publicly. Momentum in this era of the movement is already waning following the failure of NO-DAPL because of the obviously violent actions pursued by Red Warriors in direct defiance of Traditional Lakota. In addition, Honor the Earth and the Indigenous Environmental Network have previously stated allegiance with the Red Warriors. It is hoped that the leadership of these organizations are simply unaware of the true nature and intentions of the Red Warrior Anarchist membership.
That said, if the Native sponsors of any camp knows that the Red Warriors are in-fact Anarchists and still want them there, then that is their choice. However, the non-Indian membership of the Red Warriors have consistently attempted to hide this fact from Traditional American-Indians, fearful that they will lose their ability to infiltrate in a collective mass under the “Red Warrior” brand name.
It is certain that individual anarchists will likely get in if the camps that are open to non-Indians, but for Insurrectionary Anarchists to effectively plan/execute violence, they must be able to 1) infiltrate in a large numbers and 2) be allowed to have a segregated location (aka a base) within the larger camp. This is why they had a segregated camp at NO-DAPL and this why they are pressing so hard all over Indian Country to be admitted into protest camps as the “Red Warriors”. This limiting fact is their great weakness and the great strength of Indian people. How so?
Indian Resistance Organizers MUST keep their Indigenous protest circles tight. The Apache-Oak Flats model is a great example of how to maintain a long term camp utilizing select American-Indian circles along with the contributions of trusted local whites who are well known to the local Native population. They do accept donations from the general public, but the Apache tightly control direct participation in the camp itself. By doing this they have been able to maintain this camp for three years. Though this camp is small, the feds know that they moment they attempt to raid it, thousands of Apache will mobilize in response. They have accomplished this and have successfully protected their sacred Holy Grounds by being completely non-violent. And isn’t this really the goal? Protecting American Indian holy sites, lands and waters rather than contributing to some vaguely envisioned larger movement? For certain, by us Lakota naively allowing the participation of groups into our NO-DAPL resistance camps without carefully vetting them first, we actually ended up bringing the very pipeline we dreaded upon ourselves. We opened the door and these exploiters ran right in. Especially the Red Warriors.
Before closing, I want to touch on the staged violent event that I noted earlier which gave the Corps of Engineers and the Feds the leverage they needed to close the camps. After the taking of North Camp on Oct. 27, 2016 and the violent events that followed, the elders asserted themselves and were able to shut down all potentially violent direct actions until the night of November 20, 2016. They instructed all newcomers to NOT listen to the Red Warriors or to other groups driving around in pick-up trucks with bull-horns, instructing random people to run off to unauthorized actions. Prior to this, most volunteers who came would get tricked into participating in these potentially violent actions by Red Warriors. Most were there for only a short time and didn’t understand the internal dynamics going on. The elders would announce real actions and negate fake ones through the Central Fire microphone system.
Indeed, on November 1, 2016, the Standing Rock Tribal Council (SRST) passed a motion to remove the Red Warrior and their encampment completely from the Oceti Sakowin camp. Though it is true that SRST Council had their own motives in doing so, it was common knowledge that Traditional Lakota Elders on Standing Rock and in the Oceti Sakowin camp wanted the Red Warriors gone due to concerns about their violence. The former Red Warrior spokesman Cody Hall verified this in a local news report. Here’s the link:
http://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Standing-Rock-Sioux-Tribal-Council-votes-unanimously-to-ask-Red-Warrior-Camp-to-leave-401548985.htmlGiven the imminent threat of forced removal, the Red Warriors thus opted to turn to a staged violent event to 1) promote their anarchist agenda and 2) to generate funds from Go Fund Me donations. This event occurred on the night of November 20, 2016 and has now been dubbed the “Bridge Battle”. In the comments section of this Open Letter a former Red Warrior reveals that 1) the Red Warriors did indeed intentionally plan violent direct actions to, 2) generate income off of Go Fund Me donations, because 3) they use the mantra, “If it bleeds, it leads”. In addition he reveals that the Red Warriors have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars of worth of donations from the Lakota and also actively engaged in intimidation of other groups while at Standing Rock. Please click the link to the Comments section found at the top of this Open Letter to learn more.
“The Bridge Battle”: On the night of November 20, 2016 it was freezing cold. At around 10:30pm after the Central Fire Mic system was shut down for the night and all the elders had gone to bed or went home…suddenly young men began running through the camp creating hysteria. They ran from kitchen to kitchen, camp to camp screaming at the top of their lungs that the Morton County Sheriffs and the National Guard were attempting to storm over the barricade on the Blackwater Bridge to take the camp. Hundreds of people ran up there and the intense violence that everyone heard about unfolded. But here’s the truth.
The Camp Organizers and the Traditional Elders had an agreement with Morton County & National Guard. We agreed to not disturb anything on the bridge, as did they. They would not take camp and we would not go over the barricade. That night a group of Red Warriors intentionally began moving a burnt out vehicle on the bridge in direct violation of this agreement. They then sent these young men into camp to mobilize us under a false narrative, to respond to an invasion of the camp, that was not happening. They created this panic narrative requiring immediate action when 1) the central Microphone system was off, 2) most of the elders were gone/asleep, thereby unable to refute the narrative and 3) most folks had no idea what was really going on.
People got concussions from this event, were sprayed with water cannons in freezing temperatures, were shot with tear gas, there were broken limbs, one man had to be resuscitated after having a heart-attack, and a young woman had her arm nearly blown off. Ambulances could not get down easily from Mandan, so many came from Fort Yates and I believe Mobridge. For about 8 hours ambulances were struggling through the crowded camp to get patients to far off hospitals.
This event is finally what gave the Corps and Feds the leverage they needed to officially begin the process to shut down the camps for good. The Red Warriors staged this event. Either a plant working for ETP had gotten into the Red Warriors to orchestrate this violence and/or the Red Warriors simply did it because there hadn’t been any violence in weeks. Perhaps they feared they were losing the momentum which they needed to build upon for more violent actions elsewhere? They certainly did it to generate Go Fund Me donations. Whatever their reasoning, they intentionally orchestrated this incident to create violence. In the process they actually used “Block Bloc” techniques and stealth against our own Lakota elders to get what they wanted. This is the incident that really ended it all.
The SRST Council was forced to close the camps under massive federal pressure, they intimidated elders into silence and then removed official support for the Water Protectors/Campers that remained. However, the SRST Council still controlled the fake Head-man council that remained and who in turn enacted their will (via various camp functionaries). They did everything in their power to empty out the camp as much as possible before drilling. As a result they completely removed the deterrent threat posed by thousands of activists rushing the pad if ETP began drilling. The “Red Warriors” actually destroyed our non-violent narrative when we needed it the most and gave the corrupt Standing Rock Council, ETP and the Feds exactly what they wanted. But they probably didn’t care, because they also got exactly what they wanted. Basically, in the end, it was really two groups of whites with two differing sets of ideologies, using Lakota lives to fight each other.
In closing, ask yourself this. “If Red Warriors aren’t ashamed and their intentions are good, why are they hiding the fact that they are mostly whites and are Insurrectionary Anarchists from Traditional American Indians? If they are here to help us, why are they lying to us?” We, American Indians, are the ones that will have to live the consequences when our resistance efforts fail due to Red Warrior and Anarchist violence. Already, right now, it’s our little ones at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River who are going have to drink that polluted & contaminated water. Do we want to allow these “Red Warriors” to keep using our resistance actions (meant to preserve our waters, our lands and our cultures for future generations), as disposable opportunities in pursuit of their revolution?
These Red Warriors obviously didn’t care. They do what all white groups do. They stole the credibility of our Indigenous heritage, stole the momentum of our movement and sacrificed our needs in the process. They are just like ETP, they just steal different things.
Please share this Open Letter with American Indians, American Indian activists and our allies.
Respectfully;
Kevin Meagher
Iyeska Lakota (Cheyenne River Lakota/unenrolled) & Metis
NOTE: I attained all my information regarding the nature of the Red Warriors and their activities from actual Red Warriors as well as other Lakota who are in the know. Those associated with AIM have also informed me of the cited interactions between AIM and the Red Warriors. Finally, I personally witnessed many of these things and have close ties with numerous fellow Lakota throughout South Dakota.
