THE SOUL'S NOT FOR SALE
BY
KEITH LAUFENBERG

-1-
THE LAND



The whole white race is a monster who is always hungry, and what he eats is land.
Chiksika, Shawnee.

One does not sell the earth upon which people walk.---Tashunka Witki (Crazy Horse)

Some of our chiefs make the claim that the land belongs to us. It is not what the Great Spirit told me. He told me that the land belongs to him, that no people own the land, and that I was not to forget to tell this to the while people.---Kannekik, Kickapoo prophet.




Black Eagle bent down and sipped the clear water from the stream and gave thanks to the Great Spirit for guiding him there, as he was very thirsty. He was a Cherokee, an Anidzogohi, or member of the Wolf Clan, and had been walking in the forest, as he was wont to do a lot of late, the Soldier Coats were becoming more and more of a presence lately and there was talk of the Cherokees being forced off the land. He spied several horses heading his way and sensed that they were not Real People but White Eyes. He was looking for a place to hide when his Power, his commune with the Great Spirit, told him that they were not soldier coats and not a danger to him. He watched as they approached him and he stood his ground, as they reined their horses up just a few feet from where he stood. There were seven White Eyes and one of the Real People, who spoke to him, in the Cherokee language:
'Ah-umah, brother, I am Walks Slow, I am Anikawi, and these White Eyes are wanting to ask you a crazy question brother, but don't make fun of them even though they are crazy because they have many steel knives and blankets and firewater which they gave it to our clan for nothing but these crazy words and our chief to sign a paper with a mark.
'Um, what crazy talk, Walks Slow?'�
'Umah, they want to tell you to sell them the land.'�
'What? They are crazy; why you might as well tell me I can sell the water or the air.'�
Robert 'Sly Bob' McCain, a lawyer from Philadelphia, saw the Indian pointing first at
the stream and then at the sky and asked his interpreter what he had said. Walks Slow, a settler's boy until captured by the Cherokee when he was seven, nodded at McCain.
'He says you might as well try to buy the water or the air as the land, Lawyer.'
Sly Bob McCain's thoughts were quickly verbalized, as he stared into the sky and then at the stream:
'Buy the water and the air, hey, now there's a thought!'�

*********

Lozen rode alongside her brother, Victorio, as they steered their horses towards what the White Eyes called Texas. They were Chihenne Apache, the Red Paint People, and they were being systematically run out of their country, and off the land, land that they and their ancestors had lived on for thousands of years. It was the White Eyes who chased them from their land, for they wanted it and they wanted the gold rocks and the water that lie beneath it, as if it could be owned. All the Real People knew that Ussen, the Great Spirit, owned everything in the world but the White Eyes believed that they could own the land and everything in the land. Even though, all throughout the country the Real People told the White Eyes they were welcome to stay on the land, as there was more than enough for everybody, the White Eyes still demanded to own it. The White Eyes were crazy but there were so many of them, as many as the ants in an anthill, and they attacked the Real People and killed many of them, even their women and children, causing the Real People to fight hack and defend their homes. Lozen stopped now and looked at her brother; her palms were tingling and she pointed westward.
'Biduya, they come at us from that direction.'�
Victorio, who well-knew of his sister's gift from Ussen, nodded and said:
'Um, is that what your power tells you sister?'�
She quickly nodded and they turned their horses to the east and rode on.

*********

The Army soldiers rode on, chasing after the numerous bands of Apache and Comanche Indians wherever they led them, for the soldiers were under orders to capture or kill them and so they would, even as Jonathon, 'Fast John' Tillman, a lawyer from New York, rode with them. He knew what he was after and it wasn't any Apache or Comanche Indian scalps. No, Tillman's interests were not in the Indians themselves but what the Indians possessed, or rather what he foresaw they should or may possess, and that possession was, of course, their lands, their lands and what lie on top of, below, and in between those lands; for Tillman was also an engineer and knew that there were minerals below those lands that deserved closer inspection. He knew that

2
the Indians held childish beliefs, they believed the land was owned by Ussen, their God, and there was enough for all to share. They would give freely of what they possessed but then they expected you to give freely of what you possessed and to a man like Tillman this was just plain insanity, especially considering the fact that he and his confederates, the White Eyes, had so much more than the Apaches did, not the least of which was their knowledge of the ways in which the world worked, something these savages obviously didn't have. Tillman was a capitalist, first and foremost, and would go to the ends of the earth. literally, if he had to, to capitalize on his inside information and, being a lawyer whose brother-in-law was a general in the Calvary, he knew of the government's plan of pillaging the land for the government's own use and he, Jonathon 'Fast John' Tillman, definitely wanted in on the pillaging, and in on as much of it as he could get, for himself and his associates, all moneyed men from the East, who were privy to, as many of these westerners apparently were not, the value of the land that they walked and rode on. He reined in his horse; he was riding up front with the Indian scouts and an interpreter, and said:
'Hey, Mickey, what say we stop and rest awhile, I'm dyin' here.'�
Mickey Free, the half-breed son of a Mexican father and an Apache mother, who spoke Apache, as well as Spanish and English, nodded and they stopped the column, causing General George Crook, who the Real People called the Grey Fox, to ride up to them.
'Mickey, what's goin' on? We need to get after that renegade Victorio and that sly Apache dog Geronimo. Why are we stopping here?'�
Mickey Free, who Crook depended upon, literally, as he could interpret the words from any of the Apache chiefs anyway he wished, twisting them to his benefit when need be, turned towards the commanding general and spat on the ground, then growled:
'It's the lawyah, h'yah Gen'ill, sez he's tarred, heh-heh.'�
Crook stared at the exhausted greenhorn and scowled but called for a respite, for as long as Tillman wanted them to anyway; the man was too well connected for Crook, a career military man, to mess with.

-2-
BACK TO THE FUTURE-A CENTURY LATER


Money, th' only power
That all mankind falls down before
Butler, Hudibras. Pt. iii. canto ii, 1. 327.



Thomas Two Feathers stared out the window at the land that had been in his family for centuries. His grandfather had made him promise to never sell this land and he had

3
always thought that he would abide by that agreement but now, in the summer of 1977, he was pondering that he must do just that, for he had just been discharged from the Marine Corps and he wanted no part of working for a living, doing menial chores for someone else's profit. He had seen combat in Vietnam and it had turned him away from war, seeing that it was futile and realizing that it was not Ussen's plan for him. The land that he owned was the only way that he could become an independent man, a human being who relied on no one to feed or clothe himself, or to provide for his family, which he felt he was surely destined to have, and the only way was to sell the land and move out of Texas, where he no longer had any family, as his father had died in the Second World War and his mother had remarried and willed the land to her only child, him.
He had decided that he would see what a local businessman, who had just contacted him about purchasing his land, would offer and then he would consider his options. He saw the man coming and walked to the front door of his small cabin. The man was dressed in blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a pale blue western shirt. They shook hands and Two Feathers invited him in and the man handed Two Feathers a business card and told him that he had been a landman for some of his father's friends but was starting his own company and that Two Feathers, who he immediately called Tommy, with a quick slap on the back, would be one of his first customers. He told him he would like to purchase the mineral rights to his land, all the way down to ten thousand feet, but Two Feathers didn't have any idea of what the man was talking about and said he would need some time to think it all over. The man said that that would be fine and, as he was leaving, Two Feathers asked him about his company's name and he answered that it was Arbusto, which was Spanish for Bush, not coincidentally the man's last name.

*********

Joseph Black Eagle bent down and sipped at the clear water from the stream and gave thanks to the Great Spirit for providing it for yet another day. He stood up and stared at the oncoming figures in the distance, and recognized that one of them was his beloved sister, Cecelia Pretty On Top. They were coming down from the main house on Black Eagle's large tract of land, located in the North Georgia Mountains. The duo reined in their mounts and Black Eagle greeted his sister in Cherokee and she returned the greeting, and then turned towards the man on the horse next to her and said:
'Oh Joseph, this is Mr. McCain, our next door neighbor.'�
McCain stepped off his horse and stretched forth his hand towards Black Eagle.
'So, can I call you Joe then?'�
'Sure, and can I call you Sly Bob then?'�
Robert McArthur McCain IV nodded knowingly and rasped:
'Sure, why not? But, you know that nickname's really been passed down from my paw-paw's Daddy. Yeah-ah, he was a lawyer too, y'know?'�
Black Eagle well-knew that his neighbor was a lawyer, and one who also had political aspirations, as the local paper's gave him plenty of space, it seemed almost daily, of late.
'Well, you know my name is one that I inherited also.'�

4
'Oh yes, sure, I understand Joe, really I do.'�
Black Eagle's sister bid them farewell, saying she was going back to the house and Black Eagle bid her farewell, in Cherokee, as McCain barked:
'Oh yes, ah-er-um, it was really nice meeting you Cecelia.'�
As the hoof-beats of her horse died away in the dust-cloud that she left in her wake, Black Eagle turned towards McCain IV and said:
'So, Mr. McCain why do you wish to speak to me?'� Black Eagle almost added since we have been neighbors for 30 years and you have never said so much as a hello before, but he held it in, as he was wont to do.
'C'mon Joe, call me Bob, all mah friends do. Sly Bob, if you must.'�
'Fine then, Bob, but why now?'�
McCain shrugged his shoulders, the 'now' part of Black Eagle's short statement hadn't escaped him but he had the answer, having given it a lot of thought.
'Well, you know Joe, our lands do border on one another but we both own over a couple hun'nerd acres and well, shucks ol' son, we both been ah-er-um, busy men, over the years.'�
'Well, I stay busy enough, what with all my horses and my farming chores, of course.'�
'Yeah, sure, see I know that Joe. Say now, y'know both of our properties run alongside the Chattahoochee and nah-er-ah, well, well Joe, I'll tell yah straight out I'd like to buy your property. I'll give you a good offer Joe, a real good offer.'�
'This have anything to do with that energy company you're the president of, Bob?'�
McCain cursed the newspapers silently, under his breath and Black Eagle smiled laconically.
'Oh no Joe; no really, no way. I just ah-er, been meaning to ask you for years. You think you might sell Joe?'�
Black Eagle's money problems were fairly well known, and he said:
'Tell you what Bob, let me talk to my sister and I'll let you know.''
Sly Bob McCain IV smiled cruelly , the smile of the wolf who sees the helpless calf and is just on the verge of devouring it.
-3-
MINERAL RIGHTS


My young men shall never work. Men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us
in dreams.
You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosum to rest.
You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again.
You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it and be rich like white men. But how may I cut off my mother's hair?'� Smohalla, Sokulk, Nez Perce Shaman.

5
The earth was placed here for us'�'�'�'�and we consider her our Mother. How much would you ask for if your Mother had been harmed? No amount of money can repay. Money cannot give birth to anything. Asa Bazhonoodah, Navajo.



Thomas Two Feathers called his mother before making his final decision on whether so sell his land; after all she had given it to him and should share in any profit from it. But, his mother had told him that she feared any profit from the sale of the land and also told her son that he should ask his grandfather what to do and when he remembered that his grandfather had been dead for over a decade, he immediately understood that she had meant that he must pray for a vision, through fasting and praying.

*********

He fasted for 48 hours and then pitched a tipi as best that he could remember; soon having a fire so hot that the four rocks he placed inside the pit became broiling hot and glowing, within minutes It was December and very cold outside but it was over a hundred degrees inside the tipi and Two Feathers knew he had pitched the Sweat Lodge right. He prayed to Ussen for knowledge and strength to make the right decision and asked for a vision.
The temperature had risen dramatically in a very short period of time and suddenly Thomas Two Feathers fell on the ground, and just as suddenly, he had the vision that he had prayed for. But it wasn't the vision he had expected, for he had expected to see his grandfather or perhaps even his father, who had died when he was but a child, and it was neither of these but a woman and a woman he could only recognize as female when she stood right next to him, for she was dressed as a man would be, as an Apache warrior would be dressed, with a bandolier of bullets around her waist and a buckskin shirt, pants and boots, and with a kerchief around her forehead. Two Feathers was stymied and stuttered:
'Wha' who are you? Where am I? Wha'�'�'�'�
'I am Lozen, I am Chihenne Apache, like you. You asked for a vision and I shall show you one, come now and you will see what Ussen has given me to show you.'�
Two Feathers looked up and he was staring at the vast plains of Odessa and further on north, Midland, amid the Permian Basin, oil rigs and derricks strewn throughout. He saw the earth being torn apart and then saw the Rolls-Royce's, too innumerable to count, roar by, the people inside oblivious to the fate of the earth, only hoping, nay, praying, that if a gusher was to be found this day that it would he found on their land, or that part of someone else's land that they owned the mineral rights to. Then he saw a man walking towards him and he recognized him immediately, it was the landman, now owner of his own company, Arbusto. He looked at Lozen and she rasped:
'Behold brother, comes forth the enemy.'�
And then, in the same instant that she had appeared, she was gone.


6
*********

The man's handshake put Two Feathers somewhat at ease but he felt as if he had just awakened from a dream and couldn't remember what it had all been about. The man stared at him strangely, as Two Feathers shook his head several times then walked to the sink in his cabin and threw a handful of cold water on his face. He turned to face the visitor and couldn't remember who he was or if he had been talking to him or not. A thought filtered through his mind that he wanted to do a Sweat but then it left as quickly as it had entered and he shook his head again and stared at the man, who was smiling at him.
'Rough night Tom?'�
'Ah-er-um, yeah, yeah sorry man.'�
'Oh, that's all right, hell I've had plenty of those myself, in college back east, you know? Went to Harvard, heh?'�
Two Feathers just stared at the man and then, finally, he awoke and it dawned on him who the man was and what he was doing there.
'Oh, yeah, you're the landman, right?'�
'Well, ah-em', yeah, heh. Own my own company, now though.'�
'Right, well, I'm gonna have to say no to your offer.'�
'Oh, really? Well you know all I'm really asking for is the mineral rights, the ah-er, you know, the oil rights, hell, in'niz bid'ness you just never know where yer maybe gonna strike it rich and see your land is'�'�'�'�'�'�'�
Two Feathers stood up and walked to his front door; which he opened quickly.
'I'm sorry but I'm not interested in desecrating Mother Earth.'�
The man looked at Two Feathers warily and Two Feathers recognized the look immediately; it was one of incomprehension and disbelief, incomprehension at the choice of words, Mother Earth being an unknown to the man, and disbelief towards anyone who fails to share a belief that money, and profit, was the key to all happiness.
The man stood up and walked to the front door, where he shook Two Feathers' hand and shrugged his shoulders.
'Well, no hard feelin's 'en, huh Tom?'�
'No, none here either, not at all.'�
'Yeah, yah know I'm probably gonna run for Congress next year.'�
'Oh, that a fact?'�
'Yup and I'd sure appreciate yah vote Tom, sure would.'�
He stuck his hand out and Two Feathers shook it and rasped:
'Well we'll see what happens then; it was ah, nice to see you again then, Mr. Bush.'�

*********

He had gone to the rodeo to get away from his problems and had never expected to meet anyone there, least of all a Cherokee girl from the Atlanta area, but there he was, sitting in a café

7
buying her a cup of coffee and some fry-bread. His pick-up truck's battery had been dead and she had been parked right behind him and had had a set of jumper cables. He offered to buy her the refreshment as a thank you but they had already been in the small café for over an hour. Tommy Two Feathers really liked this girl, he liked the why she looked, the way she talked and the way
she thought. He sipped his coffee and said:
'So, you and your brother turned the money down?'�
'Yes, of course, as you just said Mother Earth would have been badly abused. The man was a lawyer, he is the president of an energy company and is trying to privatize the water in Atlanta, just so he can make more money; and he is a politician, he is running for the City Council next year. See what I mean?'�
Two Feathers smiled at Cecelia Pretty On Top Black Eagle and she blushed slightly and rasped:
'What? What's the matter Thomas Two Feathers?'�
Two Feathers' eyebrows shot upwards, towards his hairline, and he snickered.
'Oh no, nothing Cecelia, really, it's just that this guy sounds almost exactly like the guy that tried to buy my place, except this guy wasn't a lawyer but he is running for Congress and, let me tell you what, he offered to just buy the mineral rights.'�
'The mineral rights? Really? What for?'�
Two Feathers smiled laconically.
'He wanted to drill for oil. You should see the land in Midland and Odessa? Oil rigs and derricks everywhere. They drill into the earth twenty-four seven.'�
Cecelia Pretty On Top frowned.
'Twenty-four seven?'�
'You know, twenty-four hour's a day, seven days a week. Money, money, money is all they understand.'�
Cecelia Pretty On Top smiled and her pearly-white teeth glistened, bringing Two Feathers' heart into his throat. He couldn't remember the last time he had even conversed with a Native American woman, much less been this enamored over one.
'You're right Thomas; money and power are their Gods. They all think like lawyers.'�
Two Feathers nodded glumly.
'I just wish I knew what I'm gonna do to pay my property taxes. They raised 'em tenfold last year.'�
'Well, why don't you farm the land?'�
'Oh, oh-no, no, I couldn't; I mean, that is, this land isn't really farmable.'�
'What? Not farmable? Thomas, all land is farmable.'�
'Yeah? Well, that is, I, I really don't know a heck of a lot about farmin' see, so'�'�.
Cecelia Pretty 0n Top smiled boldly this time and put her soft hand on top of Two Feathers' rough one, and cooed:
'But, I do Thomas, I do!'�


8
-4-
THE SOUL'S NOT FOR SALE


And they two shall be one flesh.---New Testament: Ephesians, v, 31.

The white men have driven the spirits away. The white man's spirits are very far away. They will not come when called. They cannot be bought with gifts. They do not care for men who are alive. The white man's spirit land is nowhere.
Toyanke Waste Win, Lakota Sioux.




It was their 20th wedding anniversary and they were celebrating it at their home in the North Georgia Mountains. It was December 14th, in the year 2000, and their two sons and daughter-in-law, had come up from their home in Texas and were staying through Christmas. The conversation flitted about, but centered on the presidential election, in which Al Gore had just conceded the election, the day before, even though he had gotten over 300,000 more popular votes, than Bush. Thomas Two Feathers Jr., T.J, to most of his family and friends, sipped at a cup of coffee and moved closer to his parents' fireplace, the biting cold he had just come in from outdoors, a numbing 22 degrees, still chilling him to his bones. He nodded at his uncle, who had just made a point that when George Bush became president there was certain to be another war with Iraq.
'But Uncle Joe, why would he go to war with Iraq again?'�
Joseph Black Eagle's only child, his son, Joseph Jr., or J.J., had served in the Gulf War, and had developed a serious alcohol problem over there. He frowned and barked:
'One word, Tee-Jay, Oil!'�
'Yeah? You really think so, Uncle Joe?'� Nancy Two Feathers gasped and Joe Black Eagle turned towards her and smiled. She was seven months pregnant and he was more interested in whether it was to be a boy or a girl than he was in discussing politics with her.
'Nancy, I know it, for a fact. Now, is it gonna be ballsticks or bread?'�
'Oh, Uncle Joe, I told you I didn't get that test, whatever it is, it will be loved.'�
Joseph Black Eagle smiled, just as Tom Two Feathers Sr. barked:
'Hell, nobody knows what's good for 'em anymore anyway; otherwise Nader and LaDuke would be in office right now.'�
Billy Two Feathers shrugged his shoulders.
'Well Dad, but he's the Green Party candidate.'�
'Yeah, so?'�

9
'Well, I mean, they didn't even let him debate with Gore and Bush?'�
'Everybody knows his views and he'd obviously help poor and working people and be against war, especially oil wars.'�
'It sure would have been nice to see a Native American become the vice-president.'�
'Yeah, you're right there Nancy, Winona LaDuke would have treated Mother Earth with respect instead of disdain, as Bush surely will, that Harvard brat!'�
'But Dad, Winona LaDuke graduated from Harvard.'�
Tom Two Feathers Sr. shrugged his shoulders.
'Yeah, well she probably got some kinna grant. What kinna Skin gonna he able to afford to go to that mental institution?'�
Everyone smiled or laughed and T.J.'s wife, Nancy, rasped:
'She's an Ojibwe Dad.'�
'Yeah? They're from up around Seattle, aren't they?'�
'She lives on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, Dad.'�
'Oh yeah. Sounds like the gov'mint got in that name. I mean, what earth is white?'�
Should ah been red earth.'�
Amidst more laughter, Tom Sr. added:
'Son, your wife has got a lotta knowledge there; can she balance the checkbook too?'�
'She sure can Dad. Hey, why do you'un Uncle Joe think Bush'll'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�
Tom Sr. held up his hand and rasped:
'Son, I never told you this but that guy tried to buy our place in Midland.'�
T.J. and his brother Billy, exchanged glances and Billy barked:
'Wha'�.. what guy Dad?'�
'Bush, George Bush, our new president, he wanted to buy the mineral rights, he wanted to drill for oil. C'mon boys, it's common knowledge that his father started in the gas and oil business and he's a chip off the old man's block. And look at his vice-president Cheney. Gee'zuz, the guy's a Cee-E-Oh for a huge energy company called Halliburton. Both of 'em are oil business barons, getting rich off ah drillin' holes in Mother Earth.'�
Everyone sat quietly for a minute, realizing that Tom Sr. was quite perturbed that an oilman whose father had bombed Iraq and left unfinished business there by not taking control of the land and deposing Saddam Hussein, was soon to become the next President of the United States. Joseph Black Eagle inhaled deeply and looked at his two nephews and T.J.'s wife, Nancy. They all knew that his son, his only child, Joseph Junior, J.J. to family and friends, was in North Carolina, struggling for the past decade, with an alcohol problem and his absence was always noticeable, especially to T.J. and Billy, childhood friends who had grown up together, with frequent visits to Georgia and vice-versa.
'Boys, your father didn't sell his land and you boys and Nancy now have a fine spread to bring up your children on. And I never sold mine for the same reason and that's just this, boys, it ain't ours to sell. It's the Great Spirit's but we still gotta exist down here on Mother Earth and as long as we're livin' under the system we've been forced to, well, we will never intentionally destroy the earth and, believe me, sellin' it would mean destroyin' it and our souls with it, and boys, our

10
souls ain't for sale. As they sat, pondering Black Eagle's statement, the silence was broken when Black Eagle's wife walked in and announced that dinner was ready.
As they walked into the dining room, Nancy Two Feathers inhaled deeply.
'Um-ah-ummmmmm, sure smells good Mom.'�
Caroline Black Eagle put her arm around her daughter-in-law, hugging her tightly to her body, and rasped:
'Well Nan', we gotta remember you're eating for two, y'know and so I made a lil' extra.'�
Nancy's husband, T.J., brought a gale of laughter to the room, as he was 6'7'�, 287 lbs., and ate three times what everyone else ever did, when he smiled and barked:
'Great Mom, and if she can't eat it, heh, I'm gonna try and help her out.'�



EPILOGUE
APOCALYTPSE PREVIEWED

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.---Theodore Roosevelt.

Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die.
John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota, 1932.




It was late in January of 2005 and they were all at the large spread in the North Georgia Mountains. It was a celebration, of sorts, for Joseph Black Eagle Jr., J.J., had returned home and had been sober for the past six months. He was engaged to a woman he had met at an alcoholics anonymous meeting in Charlotte. She was half Cherokee and an orphan since childhood and everyone in the Black Eagle and Two Feathers clan loved her. Her name was Doris and J.J. had nicknamed her Dreamy Doris because she had frequent dreams and visions. Her power, her commune with the Great Spirit was that she could foretell many things in the future. Sometimes her dreams had not come true and so she had never thought anything of her power, not until she met J.J., who well-knew of it, for he had the power of foretelling when an enemy was near. He had been in the Marine Corps and had served in the first Gulf War, in 1991. It was 25 degrees outside and they sat around the large fireplace awaiting Carol Black Eagle's call to the dinner table. J.J. smiled at his betrothed, as they sat holding hands, they were to be married in three weeks, on Monday, February 14, Valentine's Day. Thomas Two Feathers Sr. nodded at his

11
brother-in-law Joseph Black Eagle Sr., and exhaled a deep breath; they had both been in the Marine Corps and both had seen combat in Vietnam. Neither man had wanted his son to serve in the military but J.J. had and was the focus of the discussion as the war in Iraq never seemed to lack for casualties and they were on the verge of elections in Iraq, a little over a week away. J.J., for his part, seemed almost reluctant to answer any questions, and everyone knew he had developed his problem with alcohol while in the Marines, in Bush Sr.'s Gulf War in '91.
'Well J.J. I'll tell you this much and you know it's true. It's all about oil and anybody says different at this late date don't know who that Condoleezza Rice worked for, for a decade before getting in there with Bush. And lookit now, now she's gonna be takin' over for Powell.'�
'I know Uncle, I know. Chevron named an oil tanker after her, then changed it just before she became National Security Advisor. And, we all know that Bush and Cheney are both oilmen but you know, you still have to admit that Saddam Hussein was a crazy man. I mean, he was the guy to invade Kuwait for their oil and he did dump millions of gallons into the gulf and set all those oil wells on fire when we whipped him in ninety-one.'�
Joseph Black Eagle smiled at his grand-nephew little Joseph Thomas Two Feathers, four years old, and rasped:
'Son, everyone knows that Saddam is crazy but what does that say about the esteem in which the vice-president of the United States is held in; he was the secretary of Defense in Bush's fathers' administration and then he becomes CEO of Halliburton, the big oil company and he supplies Saddam with sumpin' like twenty- five million worth of equipment so he can rebuild, and, of course Halliburton can benefit from the cheap oil. And then we go to war again and look at the misery we still got to this day over there? And you know Cheney grabbed thirty-four million from Halliburton as a retirement package at the same time as he was lobbying for an end to U.S. sanctions against Saddam. How can we forget these things? The guy's like a chameleon, which is to say he's an American capitalist businessman. In 2002, I remember it was in October, this guy meets with all the oil company CEO's, includin' his buddies at Halliburton, and I wonder what they were talkin' about? C'mon they were divy'in' up the rebuild contracts in Iraq. War is good for business and Cheney is a capitalist businessman, first and foremost. He'll do business with the devil if he has to and he has, as we all know now and look, they elect him and Bush again. It's totally insane; the poor are gonna get poorer and the rich are gonna keep stealin' their labor and their money. Bush talks of nothing' but tax cuts, tax cuts, shee-it, tax-cuts for his wealthy friends and for himself and Cheney, is what it is.'�
'You sure know a lot about it Dad, I'll say that.'�
'Son, this old Injun' can still read and it's all in the paper, all in the records. Hell, I'm just glad you're not still in the Corps. Or you either Billy.'�
'Yeah, If I'd a gone in it woulda been the Marines alright; family tradition, huh Uncle Joe?'�
Joseph Black Eagle shrugged his shoulders and smiled at his nephew Billy Two Feathers, as Thomas Two Feathers Sr. rasped:
'Well, all I know is every time I see the KIA pictures on channel three every night there's at least half a 'em's Moreenes.'�
J.J. shrugged his shoulders and barked:

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'Well, we're jus' gonna have to wait and see. I mean, there's no way anybody can look into the future, there's no way'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�'�..wha'�'�..what hon'?'�
'No, no nothing.'�
The focus shifted to J.J.'s future wife, Doris when J.J. rasped:
'C 'mon Dee, your hands are tinglin', they're hot, what?'�
'Well, I, I had a dream las' night.'�
Everyone in the room became quiet, as it was Doris' turn to speak and she did, in a very low monotone, an almost reverent whisper, as if someone else was talking, though her.
'Well I, it was just that, well I saw them getting into an airplane, a very large one.'�
No one said anything and J.J. rubbed her hand and whispered:
'Go on baby, go on and tell it.'�
'Well, well they were, they went up very high in the sky and then they looked down on Mother Earth and, and Mother Earth, Mother Earth just exploded.'�
The silence was broken by T.J.'s four-year old son, J.T., when he shrieked that he was hungry and Nancy, his mother, led him out of the room.
'Doris, who was in this plane that you saw?'�
'Oh, all of them, the president and vice-president and all of them in a very large jet-plane.'�
'Bush and Cheney and'�'�'�'�..
And Condoleezza Rice and that other man Wolf'�.Wolf'�'�..
'Wolf-ah-wits.'�
'Yes-yes and they all went up higher and higher in the space and then time progressed and the last thing I saw was they were all very sorry and were crying and screaming, but only for themselves.'�
'For themselves, Dee?'�
'Yes, because they missed their lives; they missed their power and their money and their possessions. And they didn't think at all about taking that huge plane from the others.'�
'Doris, from others?'�
'Oh, well, Air Force One was not there, not in my dream, they had to take this other plane, a big jet that was heading to New Zealand, a non-stop flight and it held a thousand people and'�'�.
'No plane is that big?'�
'Wait a minute Dad, I heard of a new super jumbo-jet, the Airbus A-380, it holds eight, nine hundred. Was that it Dee, huh? The three-eighty, the A, three-eighty? Or maybe 480? Or'�'�'�
'No, I remember the number, it's what I remember the most in my dream and it wasn't A-380 or A-480. I remember the number, I remember it, it was very clear, a very clear number.'�
Everyone appeared to be thinking the same thought when J.J. verbalized it:
'What number Dee? What number was it?
'Six-sixty-six. It was 666.'�
Everyone sat in an eerie silence, until it was broken by a scream and little J. T. ran into the room and grabbed his father around the neck and shrieked:
'Dahee, Dah'ee, Grammaw gots dinner ready. It smells gooood Dah'ee!'�


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