Healing Fort Bragg

Excerpted from her speech May 17, 2024,

Town Hall, Fort Bragg

Look around you right now. I want you to take a moment to look around. How many Pomo people do you see in this room? Not many.

That's what happened here. It has continued to happen here. Because if things were really corrected, there'd be more of us than there are of you. But, and a big but, here we are.

Me and you, here we are. Fort Bragg. It's a freaking name. To change it is a very, very small piece that would allow us, people like me, to heal. Holding on to it is something I am questioning; the sanity of people who want to hold on to.

Why? If there was a person in your lineage 5 generations back that was a serial rapist, would you still want us to call you the family of rapists? Would that be your identity for the rest of your life? What about the victim's family? Would you wanna be looked at like that from the victim's family also?

Because holding on to a name like Fort Bragg, that's what you're doing. It's what the people in this town are doing. [Fort Bragg] Forever sounds a lot like Forever Rape and Pedophilia.

The descendants of the settlers and the colonizers have asked us to get over these things.

We had to get over it when people came in and changed everything. And by the way, not just change for the good; destroyed everything. We didn't need saving. We didn't need the lumber mills.

We needed to be left alone in peace. That didn't happen, so here we are….

There are way bigger issues. You see, I have to protect our children and our women, and now our men, and our natural resources, and the animals and our elders, and it's a full time job. When we talk about the brothels [the Mendocino Indian Reservation was called the U.S. brothel because of the sex trafficking by the Army and settlers there] I'm gonna tell you something: the sex trade, against indigenous people has never stopped. It's still going on.

It's going on right under your noses. These reserves were not reservations. They were prisoners of war camps. We were forced there. Everything was taken from us: our children, our women, our men, our food, our land, our homes, our culture, our language, Just the very simple right of existing as a human being among everybody else.

….These things are still going on because this energy is still here. Fort Bragg is that energy, and it's here. It still sits here. When we pray, we can see it on the horizon. When I go into your stores in 2024 I'm still followed around. This is our land. We should be welcome here too.

I'm not saying get out. I'm saying we can work together. I'm saying that I wanna be a human being too. I'm saying that I wanna feel safe in this country also. Not more than you, not without you, with you also.

That's not what happens. I have a daughter who's 25 who doesn't get to go hardly anywhere alone. You know why? Because missing and murdered Indigenous women is a big ass thing, and it's big over here.

Right under your noses. Maybe even by people you know. As if everything else isn't triggering enough as an indigenous person in this white America, the least possible thing that a city could do is to change its name. That's one less thing that reminds us of the atrocities that happened and continue to happen. This isn't in the past. This is now. And it's okay. It's okay to continue this cycle. It's okay for Bragg. It's okay to be racist for Bragg.

It's okay to do sex crimes against neighbors. Well, it's okay. This is for Bragg. It's okay to hate black people, brown people, and anyone who's not just like you. For Bragg, that's what Bragg was about.

Right? I'm here to tell you now. I'm sure there are a lot of people in this room who are for changing the name, but just in case you know somebody that isn't, I want you to tell them this: that horrible man who did horrible crimes against humanity is not your culture. It's not your history. It's not your identity. It's a thing that happened in history. We don't celebrate horrible things that happened in history. We don't need to identify with them. We need to change them.

We need to all become cycle breakers. It's not too late. This is one thing. When we think about changing the name of Fort Bragg … then what’s next? I wonder if settlers worry about what’s next.

“Oh, no. If we change the name, oh, no. They're gonna take everything.” No. We are not gonna do to you what's been done to us.

We're not. It's not in our way. It's not in our teachings. That was the way of them, not us. How many of you guys here own your home in Fort Bragg?

You don't have to raise your hand. You know. I don't. I can't even afford to live here. Name change? It's 2024. I'm an activist with a very hard following. If we wanna boycott, we will. And then no money will come. Because you see, as indigenous people, we have found our power, and it's in truth telling.

But we don't want that either. It's so simple, and it doesn't need a war. And the people of this town don't need to be fighting and arguing over a name change. What we need to be doing is sitting at the same table and figuring out this together; what we're gonna do because we're all here.

Trust and believe the rest of America will be okay if Fort Bragg changes its name. It's not that hardcore. I want it to change.

I know there's many that have grown up here, and it's iconic. And I agree.

It's like some iconic thing for the people that live here and I get it. But the thing is before everybody got here, our land was iconic. Our names were iconic, and nobody gave a shit. So when we talk, we talk about humanity.

Where is the bridge here? There has to be a bridge here. We can't fight anymore. We have to learn to work together, period. We have to. Does everybody see what's going on in the world? Like, can the world handle any more violence and chaos?

So why can't we just do the simple things? You know, that's not simple to a lot of native people though. It's big. Because you know what? Every time we hear “Fort Bragg” and everybody's going to Fort Bragg, Fort Bragg is so great, and everybody has t-shirts with Fort Bragg and  sweatshirts with Fort Bragg. Everywhere is Fort Bragg because we're in California. Fort Bragg is the hot place to go. Right? We see genocide, genocide, genocide, genocide, genocide, genocide, genocide, genocide. Remember little Indian: genocide genocide genocide.

Keep in check little Indian: Genocide genocide genocide. Don't you want to change that?….Just change your name.

You change your name, you change your name at marriage. You hyphenate it, add a name. Sometimes you drop your name. Sometimes you get older and you just change your whole damn name anyway.

But people are so connected to Fort Bragg; more connected than to self. I don't buy it… But I'm gonna tell you something. For us indigenous people, it's a big deal. To people in Fort Bragg I made a list of three major reasons why it's a big deal: top, genocide, top, the destruction of all the resources here, top, sex slavery. Those are my three reasons.

What are yours? Because generations don't matter when you're indigenous, because we gotta “get over it.” We hear it no matter which way we go: “Get over it. You were conquered.”

“Get over it?” Well, we weren't conquered. We're still here. And there's a few real Indians left still. We could come up with something together that suits us all.

A better fit for us all. Fort Bragg is not a good fit, not for nobody. Unless you are engaging in those same activities, it's not a good fit. It's not even a good fit for children to know. It's not a good fit.

We aren't trying to erase things. We're trying to transition. Ain't nobody trying to erase a damn thing. We're trying to grow and move forward. And in order to do that, we must heal.

And the first step of healing is to turn off that neon sign that says “genocide” on it. Now we can maybe walk forward. There's always a compromise. Maybe you're not gonna be all happy with it. Maybe I'm not gonna be all happy.

Maybe we're all gonna come up with the new name. Maybe the native people are gonna come up with the new name, but maybe you're gonna say it needs to be written in English and I can deal with that. Because neither side is gonna be all the way satisfied. But at least both sides can have something to do with the solution that pushes us forward. You know, going forward doesn't mean everybody's happy, but it means that people got together and came up with a solution.

Because everything in this America screams genocide. Everything. And we do a good job walking through it because we're still here. I'm still here, and I'm sober here. Oh, it sucks because it hurts.

We need to come together, it doesn't matter political parties, it doesn't matter the left or the right, it doesn't matter. We're human beings and we should have some humanity towards one another, And be a real community. A community isn't divided. A community is together.

We make decisions together. We find solutions together. We get through the shit together. We get through it. You see, you're here now.

We did a class at Xa Kako Dile  on seeds and plants, and everybody wants to rip out the invasive species. And I had to look at people and let them know you're the invasive species. But you’re here now. So we have to figure out a way that's a little less violent than rip them all out and throw them in the trash can. We have to think of solutions now because these are lives.

Whether it's plant lives or human lives, these are lives, and life is sacred. That's a native thing too. That's what we believe. We don't have major wars, but America's still having major wars. We're not.

It's time to come together as a community now. It's time to really sit down and stop just talking about the history, and find solutions. It's time to press forward as a community. Some people aren’t ready.

But maybe next week, they will be. But today, they aren't. Instead of continuing the cycle of arguing and being more divisive. This country is divided right now. Start here.

Show the country. Show the country unity. Lead with humanity. Yeah. Start changing. This is how we grow.

I'm a human being. I'm not just a Indian. I'm not just indigenous. I'm not just Pomo. I'm human.

I'm a human being. And when you take away everything else, all the other labels that everybody else puts on us, I'm a human just like you. And if something tragic happened to you, I wouldn't parade around your home, shoving it in your face 24 hours a day. If you came to me and said, “hey, you know, this guy shot my son, and you keep pictures of him in my yard. Could you please stop? It's really hurting me.” I wouldn't be like, “ah, No.” Because, yeah, I don't wanna keep hurting people. So we would take that down. That's what the name For Bragg is. It's adding insult to injury. It's continuing and perpetuating the harm to indigenous people. Just so you know, the genocide has not ever stopped.

The government starves our people out. There are areas in this country with zero water. The Diné nation has no water. Can anybody in here imagine not having access to water? Having to wait for a water truck to come along and give you water?

And for the United States to say, “it wasn't our responsibility.” There are big things going on. We have nowhere to rest. We've been in battle for over 500 years. We don't have nowhere to rest.

I came here to go to Xa Kako Dile. Not Fort Bragg. Xa Kako Dile. Because if I didn't get there, I was gonna take my own life because what's the point? We have to fight for our children still.

Basic human rights we're still fighting for. Coming into Fort Bragg is very triggering. The way we are treated in Fort Bragg is not good. And it's partly due to the name. The name gives permission for people to treat people that look like me like shit.

It's giving permission. I always told my daughter when her and her friends would call you, “bitch,” and this, you know, like playing. And I always say, “don't do that. Not even playing, don't do that. Do not allow anyone to call you that because when you allow your friend to call you that, you are allowing everyone else to call you that.”

Don't do that. That's what “Fort Bragg” is doing. It's allowing everyone else the right to treat us subhuman, to treat black people subhuman, and like it's okay. These things are not okay. It's 2024.

This is not okay. I don't know if this town didn't get the memo or whatnot, but we don't celebrate the Confederacy. We don't celebrate slave owners. Like, what if the tables were flipped? What if it was y'all that we enslaved, just asking it to dig deep, and really put that one on, how would you feel?

My daughter's still at risk. Every time we go on the road, we are almost killed, and I mean on purpose, just for existing. Because of areas that celebrate violence, areas who hold on to violent histories, because doing that gives permission for everyone to behave that way. That's why it needs to be changed. Not because I just don't wanna see it anymore.

Not because, oh, I just wanna upset everybody. No. It's because they want the people to stand up and make a stand and say, treating people this way is unacceptable. We're getting rid of this thing. Not because I just want to upset everybody. No, it's because I want the people to stand up and make a stand and say, treating people this way is unacceptable.

We welcomed people and we still got massacred. Understand we fed people and still got massacred. Understand that we were outnumbered and said, okay, we’re out of here. And still got shot in the back.

But I'm still here. I'm one of the ones who is a descendant of one of the ones who got away. And I'm not gonna stop, and I'm not gonna go anywhere, and I'm not going away. And we can have these talks because I genuinely give a shit about each and every person in this room.

Because as human beings, we can do better. It doesn't matter if you're 20 years old or a 120, we can do better. We can start from right now. We can do better.

We can work together. Because guess what? When we start to do that, we're gonna create a happier space, a more inviting space, a more everything space. If we were to get into the dollar and cents of it, it just make sense to spend the money to change it. Do you know how much energy will go away, all the negative energy?

This place will not flourish as long as we hold on to this dark history. There's always just a little something creepy about these areas, and I'm not the only one that thinks so. I brought so many people here who have all different backgrounds, nationalities, and races who all say,  “I really had fun except it's just a little creepy.” Right? Because they feel that heaviness here.

Let's let it go. We have to let the heaviness go. You know what? Violence, rape, murder, all this crap, that's not your identity. And if it is, you might want to turn yourself in because you're not healthy.

Oh. You're sick? No. But if that’s all you know is this history, right? It's all you know for five generations or however many generations, right?

Maybe you're scared that if we erase one part of it

we will try and erase you, but I'm here to tell you, you can't be erased. You're a human being, not a marker, not a pencil, not a crayon. And then also, maybe you don't know your roots. So you hold on to these. But the thing is, let the dark violent roots go and we'll help you, we'll help you find your roots, the good ones.

You were born loved. Every single one in this room was born loved. You were born loved. Whether you were born in your homes or not, you were born loved.

And you know what? We can take you back to that love, that space of humanity. But we can't do it if you're carrying a shield of genocide. We're not going to. We probably could, but we're not going to. And so, yeah, for me, I feel like there's just a heaviness across the United States.

And people may think as indigenous people we are asking too much. No. Every single thing was taken from us. Every single thing. And no matter how heavy and deep the conversation is, understand that I love you and I care about you. And the only reason we're going over this is because I know you can do better. I can do better. We can do better. We can be friends. We don't have to be scared of each other. And a lot's gotta change, and a lot of learning has to happen, a lot of unlearning has to happen.