Mni-Wiconi : Water Is Life!

^^^ Click image to play video!!

Aho Mitakuye Oyasin

This is for the Natives, I give thanks for the things that they gave us. I wrote this song back sometime around 2003. Around that time we were focused primarily with raising awareness about the state of the Pine Ridge Rez. From Pine Ridge, to the Four Corners and depleted uranium piles, to the more recent Standing Rock actions, many have always been adamant about the well being and prosperity of indigenous people.

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Although we've been playing this song out live with the Freedom Movement for years, it doesn't have an official studio release on any album yet, so I thought it'd be a good track to include in my Sunday Steem Studio Sessions. It seemed fitting, or appropriate, to mash the video edits up with some footage I took from some of the Standing Rock "NoDAPL" actions up in North Dakota.

As most of the world now knows, the 'Energy Transfer Partners' company commissioned a project to run oil across a section of North America through a massive $3 billion, 1 thousand mile pipeline that can transfer estimates of half a million barrels of crude oil per day from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois. A portion of this developing pipe line ran through the Missouri river near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation in North Dakota.

1st Nation cultures throughout America have traditionally sought to practice a lifestyle that honors, mimics and respects the importance of the "natural" elements of the world. In contrast to the overwhelmingly dominant western (or some argue "European") American culture, 1st Nation principles place balance and service with the planet far above the drive and value for capitalistic industrialized development or prosperity. The concept that "Water is Life," is blatantly factual in nature, yet the tangible ways that that principle manifests in various cultures varies significantly. In fact the principles, beliefs, morals and mythologies of the multitude of current existing nations sharing "real-estate" on modern planet Earth, varies enormously.

Often when cultures and ideologies clash, conflict & tension arises and threats against the non-aggression principle increase. In other words, the inhabitants of this planet have been waging war with one another for the greater part of recorded human history. Philosophical, religious, social, cultural and technological differences have resulted again and again in a battle of will and force. Justified and unjustified acts of pre-emptive aggression. Justified and unjustified acts of resistance and retaliation. Thousands of years of hurdles to even get to where we're at in this modern industrialized neo-1st nation.

When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. - Cree Prophecy

The Standing Rock call to action was a modern outburst of this same bifurcating tendency. Two conflicting ideologies that seek to achieve seemingly different destinations, coming to a head. My Freedom Movement project from its conception was an attempt at acknowledging and identifying social and cultural ailments, communicating our understanding and preference regarding said observations, and seeking viable positive actions and solutions that don't violate the non-aggression principle while simultaneously improving non-cooperative self-determining individuals, communities, cultures and/or Nations.

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Of course those who know me know that indigenous native American ideologies and issues have been a foundation in much of the starting points for my creative, private, social and public endeavors. And while I wrote the song "The Natives" long before the Standing Rock action to stop DAPL, as I mentioned, it seemed common sense that I would now utilize the footage of this incredible recent phenomenon that grew far beyond the Sioux Tribe, to exemplify the original sentiments that even inspired the music in the 1st place. And thus, you have this glorious Steemit post, and my Freedom Movement Standing Rock mash up video.

I took the Standing Rock pictures and video footage during September of 2016 while we were staying at both the Sacred Stone and the main camp. My experience at Standing Rock, the lessons I learned, and the on-going questions, concerns and hopes I have moving forward, would be a lengthy vlog on it's own, so I'll keep this post short and sweet for now. I hope you enjoy the music and the mix, and remember that there still is much work to do to re-establish health, peace and balance among the many 1st nation and industrial nations remaining today.

Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land 'infested' with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame, Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. - Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Sioux

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It's a love revolution. This isn't about "identity politics," this is about brainstorming positive solutions for a more peacefully healed, deeply complex, American culture.


One Love!

^{all music, pictures, graphics and video footage by McAD aka gentlesouljah
Additional music at Rhymes4theTimes.com}