Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Symposium presented by the Anthropology Graduate Student Association

Sexual violence against Native American women is such a startling and expansive problem in tribal communities throughout the United States. The Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota is just one of these tribal communities that have a great problem with violent attacks against their women. With hundreds of miles of land and thousands of residents, the lack of tribal police protection on Standing Rock is just one contributing factor to the failure to reach justice for victims of violence. The fact that a majority of perpetrators of sexual violence against Native American women are non-Natives should also not be ignored. Due to a combination of these factors, along with a lack of serious commitment by police and judicial inadequacies, Native women at Standing Rock have often remained silent in the face of violence. They can experience blame, shame, ambivalence towards authority figures, and a lack of general trust towards others. Unfortunately, inadequacies with the commitment of tribal police and issues with jurisdiction complicate the situation for women experiencing sexual violence. For example, tribal police cannot arrest a non-Native perpetrator on reservation land. However, there have been some legislative decisions, such as the Tribal Law and Order Act, which hope to help alleviate the harsh consequences victims of sexual violence are forced to face. In addition to legislation, action on the part of victims and survivors, advocates and activists, and community members at large, will generate a more complete understanding of the complexity of the issues surrounding sexual violence at Standing Rock, as well as methods in which this problem with violence can begin to be eliminated from the Standing Rock community.

REFERENCES

Amnesty International.

2009. No More Stolen Sisters: The Need for a Comprehensive Response to Discrimination

and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada.

Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.ca/amnestynews/upload/AMR200122009.pdf.

Amnesty International.

2007. Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women From Sexual Violence in

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/035/2007/en/cbd28fa9-

Amnesty International.

2004. Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and

Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada. Retrieved from

http://www.amnesty.ca/campaigns/resources/amr2000304.pdf.

Deer, S.

2004. Toward an Indigenous Jurisprudence of Rape.

Deer, S.

2009. Decolonizing Rape Law: A Native Feminist Synthesis of Safety and

Sovereignty. Wicazo Sa Review 24(2): 149-167.

Dobie, K.

2011. Tiny Little Laws: A Plague of Sexual Violence in Indian Country.

Melmer, D.

2007. American Indian Women Not Served By Justice Department. Indian Country Today.

Retrieved from http://www.ncdsv.org/images/American%20Indian%20Women%20Not%20

Michael, J.

2010. Standing Rock’s Tribal Court Stays Busy. The Bismarck Tribune. Retrieved from http://

www.bismarcktribune.com/news/local/article_5661ca7e-a820-11df-8df1-001cc4c03286.html

Michael, J.

2010. Tribal Law and Order Act Expected To Be Felt On Standing Rock.

Ogburn, S. P.

2001. Sexual Assault on the Rez. High Country News.

Retrieved from http:// www.hcn.org/hcn/blogs/goat/sexual-assault-on-the-rez.

Rosenthal, L.

2010. The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010: A Step Forward for Native Women. Retrieved

from http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/29/tribal-law-and-order-act-2010-a-step-

forward-native-women

Segnes, A.

http://www.annesenges.com/PDF/Standingrockgetty.pdf.

Sullivan, L.

2007. Rape Cases on Indian Lands Go Uninvestigated. NPR. Retrieved from

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12203114.

Valencia-Weber, G. & Zuni, C.

Domestic Violence and Tribal Protection of Indigenous Women in the United States.

Saint John’s Law Review. Retrieved from

http://www.lawlib.utoronto.ca/

Diana/fulltext/zuni.htm

Chapter 11

Transnational/American Studies

Wallace “Mad Bear” Anderson was a man of many roles. A member of the Tuscarora Nation, Mad Bear was a healer, indigenous rights activist, and unifying political leader active throughout the 1950s and 1960s and onward. Throughout his life, he fought vigorously for indigenous rights and issues of tribal sovereignty, arguing that Indian people should turn away from the federal government and instead return to their traditions. Of his numerous efforts, he helped to lead the fight against the New York State Power Authority in 1957, organized other Haudenosaunee protests against the Canadian and U.S. governments, met with Cuba leader Fidel Castro in an exchange of sovereignty recognition, helped implement the American Indian Unity Caravan that traveled across Indian country to address sovereignty issues, worked with the American Indian Movement, and took part in numerous efforts to support Native American rights. His work brought him beyond the borders of the Tuscarora community and even beyond the nation-state as he crossed into Canada or traveled overseas with the Merchant Marines to coastal communities, exchanging ideas with indigenous peoples he encountered. His actions contributed to an Indian activism that sought a spiritual, tradition-based unity that surpassed tribal and nation-state imposed borders.

After his passing in 1985, he has left many questions behind – Why has Mad Bear’s story become trivialized or unnoticed? What was his character like as both an individual and a political leader in the Tuscarora and greater Indian community? Why has there been controversy surrounding his accomplishments? The purpose of this paper is to consider these questions and how they intertwine with the politics of Indian activism and tribal communities, and to attempt to portray a more complete and comprehensive picture of Mad Bear’s life as an activist leader within his community and Indian country.

Mad Bear was a leader who had the audacity to stand up against tribal government corruption and federal and capitalistic forces that threatened tribal sovereignty while serving nation members’ interests. It is my inclination that because he was exposing truths about corruption that were meant to be hidden, because he openly challenged both the federal bureaucracy and tribal systems, and because he was attempting to revitalize traditional Haudenosaunee ways, he was seen as a threat to status quo order on the reservation and to the unscrupulous practices of the federal government and business alike. Since his presence as a mediator and activist was seen as trouble to these systems’ continuations, his legacy is rifled with controversy, belittlement, and downright objection and denial. Despite this portrayal influenced by scholars and possibly Tuscarora leadership, Mad Bear’s story, fearlessness, and accomplishments are deserving of more recognition for all he has done for the Tuscarora community and wider Indigenous community.

The Haudenosaunee people have a strong history and foundation of activism. They have a rich cultural, spiritual, political, and philosophical legacy grounded in traditions that derive from their Creation story, the Great Law of Peace, the Longhouse spiritual tradition and Gaiwiio, comprised of the teachings of Handsome Lake, ceremonies, and the stories and history of the people. In the sense that the very meaning of activism is the movement to take action to achieve a specific political goal or improved change, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy has been the manifestation of activism itself. The story of the Peacemaker and formation of the Confederacy presents that the six nations decided to stop warring and retaliating and accepted the Peacemaker’s message of peace, uniting as the Five Nations of the Confederacy, with the sixth joining centuries later. This reorganization was in itself a political act of activism. The Six Nations’ continued struggle for self-determination and their sovereignty is reflected strongly in the 1977 address to the United Nations, “Basic Call to Consciousness,” a wake-up call and reprimand for the world to consider the need to address ecological concerns and the rights for human beings.

The more formal manifestations of Haudenosaunee activism occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century. The 1920s were marked by Canada’s outright ignorance of the Jay Treaty of 1794 and Treaty of Ghent in 1814 in regards to the Six Nations citizens’ ability to freely cross the U.S.-Canada border and international border-crossing issues “…became one of the first major battlefields of Iroquois Red Power” (Hauptman 1986). Tuscarora Chief Clinton Rickard and Cayuga Chief Deskaheh fought diligently for the security of these rights amidst arrests and denials of civil rights. Chief Rickard was a founder of the Indian Defense League of America, established in 1926, and also resisted the imposing of citizenship on all Native people as deemed by the U.S. 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. Rickard, later with the help of his son William, also fought U.S. attempts to enforce a draft during World War II on Indian people through the Selective Service Act of 1940. Deskaheh died from an extended illness in 1925 while fighting for these rights as he was denied entry into Canada to return to his territory at the Grand River Reserve. It was not until 1969 that the Canadian government recognized the Haudenosaunee treaty rights and allowed Six Nations citizens to cross the border freely (Johnson et al. 1997). These rights are maintained and celebrated to this day every July at the Border Crossing Celebration, though they may be challenged again in the near future, most likely under the guise of “national security.”⁴⁰

The 1950s period also brought its own unique challenges to the Six Nations, this time in the form of land theft primarily through infrastructural development. The Tuscaroras fought the NYS Power Authority where “In upstate New York an articulate and imaginative leader named Wallace ‘Mad Bear’ Anderson launched a series of dramatic protests during the 1950s that served as models for similar demonstrations across the country in the following decade” (Rawls 2001). The Seneca nation struggled with the building of the Kinzua Dam that would flood out a significant part of their territory in Southwestern New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. The Mohawk nation also faced a similar situation with the enhancement of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. This was occurring at the same time termination was set to take place and the U.S. was attempting to eradicate its treaty obligations to the Iroquois nations.

The Haudenosaunee activism movement inspired the rest of Indian country and played a significant role in the larger movement as a whole throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s. Renowned Lakota scholar, Vine Deloria, Jr., comments on the remarkable actions the Tuscarora people made against the SPA, stating “…it was the Tuscarora people of the Iroquois Confederacy who began the type of protests which have now become so common” and people “never forgot that the Tuscaroras had stood up for Indian treaty rights and the international status of the tribes at a time when few men were willing to stand for any principles at all” (Deloria 1985). Haudenosaunee activism brought fuel to the fire that was a developing indigenous activism, further igniting an arising pan-tribal consciousness and movement.
Mad Bear: at Tuscarora

Wallace “Mad Bear” Anderson was born on November 9, 1927 in Buffalo, New York. He grew up on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation with several siblings, receiving his nickname from his grandmother, based on how easily he succumbed to anger and looked like a “mad bear.” When he was a child, in 1933, his father died when his car careened off the edge of a reservation road, leaving his mother to raise the children on her own (Boyd 1994). As a result of his father’s death, Mad Bear’s family had a difficult time getting by economically and raising six children, and a few of his brothers were sent to Thomas Indian School to help with costs (Duane Anderson, Interview, 18 November 2010). Their mother eventually remarried two years later and worked at the Bell Aircraft company while the children did what they could to support the family (Anderson, Interview, 18 November 2010). At age 15, Mad Bear decided to join the military and enlisted in the U.S. Navy through falsified papers that stated he was 16 years old in 1943 (Esquire Magazine 1970). While in the Navy, he served during World War II and “he drove a landing craft in the Pacific war in the Seventh Amphibious Fleet; was at Saipan and Okinawa; and he later served in Korea” (Wilson 1960). He served up until the age of 21 when he was honorably discharged (Business First Century 1999.; Esquire Magazine 1970; Wilson 1960). Throughout the 1950s, Mad Bear opted to continue drifting the seas as he worked in the Merchant Marine, spending half of his year on the reservation and the other among the open waters, during wintertime, visiting the ports along the African and South American coasts (Business First Century 1999; Wilson 1960).

While he was in his mid-30s, he became more actively involved in Native issues on his reservation and beyond its borders. His first known participation was at the Mohawk Indian nation at St. Regis in 1957 when there was an emerging dispute between New York State and the Mohawks regarding the collection of New York state taxes (Hauptman 1986). Mad Bear helped the Mohawks with their fight “on the grounds of Indian sovereignty by leading some four hundred Indians from the St. Regis reservation into court at Massena, and tearing up summonses issued to Indians for tax refusal” while they later held a ceremonial burning of the torn papers at the Longhouse (Esquire Magazine 1970; Johnson et. al. 1997). This marked the beginning of Mad Bear’s causes: a long struggle for the defense of tribal sovereignty through the unity of indigenous peoples across all nations and nation-state borders.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to uphold these causes arose again the following year, in 1958, yet this time on his turf at the Tuscarora nation community. Robert Moses, chairman of the Power Authority of the State of New York, had great plans to build a new hydroelectric power project because a rock slide had decimated the old Schoellkopf generating station in 1956 (Business First Century 1999). Moses, as seen in previous projects on Mohawk and Seneca lands, had a habit of turning to Haudenosaunee communities for his land resource needs and the Tuscaroras’ case was no exception (Hauptman 1986). Hauptman asserts that Moses had his eyes on Tuscarora land as early as 1954 for a reservoir as part of an encompassing hydroelectric and parkway development (Hauptman 1986) and the collapse of the Schoellkopf plant conveniently presented the opportunity for Moses’s encroachment to attain 960 acres of Tuscarora soil.

However, the Tuscarora residents would not allow this to happen quietly and without protest. Contentious relations erupted almost immediately between the SPA and the Tuscarora people and leaders. The surveying and protests officially began in April 1958 and continued onward until litigation was settled in 1960. Tuscarora community member, Ted Williams, wrote down the stories about the protests against the SPA in his book, The Reservation. He recalled seeing protesters who would let the air out of SPA workers’ tires, lay down in front of bulldozers, or mislabel trees that were to be cut down and believed, “If it wasn’t for the [Tuscarora] harassments, much more of the reservation would have been destroyed” (Williams 1976). Williams described Mad Bear by pseudonym stating he, “…was one of the fiercest of fighters of Indian rights on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation or maybe of any reservation… Very Bear’s reputation was well known and the U.S. Marshal was well informed that here was a dangerous Indian to be watched carefully and thrown into jail for the first false move he made” (Williams 1976: 188). Wilson confirms this situation in his report: “The surveyors, however, went on with their work, and one day when they were there, Wallace Anderson was seen talking to some Indian children who had just been brought in by a school bus. The children then went into a field in which the surveyors were working, and a United States marshal on duty there, anticipating interference, arrested him and took him before a United States commissioner” (Wilson 1960). He, along with John Hewitt and William Rickard, was eventually released because he was found to have done nothing unlawful.

Aside from the protests and internal problems, the Tuscaroras had fought a back and forth battle in the court cases, but it eventually led to a loss for the Tuscaroras. On March 7, 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them under the idea that the land is not technically reservation land, allowing for the use of eminent domain and motions for an appeal of this decision were denied resulting in a loss of 557 acres of land (Hauptman 1986). As a result of this, the nation voted to accept $850,000 of restitution for the land loss on August 13, 1960. Chief Elton Greene, along with the Council, asserted that this agreement was not a land sale, but “a settlement for damages against the tribe” (New York Times 1960c). As a result of the agreement, thirty two Tuscarora individuals who lost land were directly compensated by a portion of the settlement, while half of the amount was divided among the remaining Tuscaroras (The New York Times 1961). However, nothing could soften the blow that struck the heart of Tuscarora sovereignty and rights. Rickard laments this in his autobiography, saying, “the SPA got its reservoir and we were left with the scars that will never heal” (Rickard 1973).

It should be known that the Tuscarora protest, like many Native protest activities, was not always a unified movement. Williams hinted of internal dissension between the Tuscarora people and their own leaders and there was much distrust between the Tuscarora people and their leadership as bribes were given and taken, rumors abounded, and people disagreed on tactical methods for resistance. Chief Tracy Johnson was publicly chastised because he violated tribal rules when he gave up his property to the SPA in exchange for a new house (New York Times 1960a). Some say that Chiefs Harry Patterson and Elton Greene were not all that innocent in their actions (Duane Anderson, Interview, 18 November 2010). Some of this dissension may be manifested through Mad Bear because he served as a mediator between the people and the chiefs and because he “had backbone and wasn’t afraid to call the chiefs out on their actions” (Anderson, Interview, 18 November 2010). Though Mad Bear was not a chief on the Tuscarora reservation⁴¹, it is understood that he was still a leader within the community that held a certain amount of influence over people and the council, as a mediator (Duane Anderson, Interview, 18 November 2010; Kenneth Dougherty Interview 14 December 2010; Boyd 1994). He was in a unique position on the reservation because “Mad Bear is not himself a chief, and this makes his position the more impressive, and, also, perhaps, his policies and his movements freer, since he is not involved in the traditional web of the relationships and rankings of the Iroquois League” (Wilson 1960).
Mad Bear: Beyond the Reservation

Later, Mad Bear’s horizons widened and his interests shifted and began to move beyond his own territory. Due to his worldly experience as a merchant marine and his captivation by sovereignty-related issues, he saw beyond the boundaries of his community and country. He even stirred up trouble across the seas when he was “…put under house arrest in Capetown after publicly advising black South Africans to burn their identity cards, and he was arrested in Taiwan for associating with ‘recalcitrant’ aboriginals and for photographing graves of Taiwan for the Taiwanese activists executed by the government” (Esquire Magazine 1970). Clearly, he saw early on that the injustices that indigenous people faced went beyond the borders of the United States.

Before and after the Tuscarora SPA protest, Mad Bear can be traced to other events and organized activities. In November 1958, he was present at the Indian Defense League of America meeting, though the extent to which he was involved with this organization is unclear (Patterson and Printup 2007: 108). In March 1959, he was involved with a revolt of the government at the Grand River territory in Canada, taking over and occupying the Council House despite the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s force (Esquire Magazine 1970). In that same year, he organized an unsuccessful citizen’s arrest of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Commissioner Glenn Emmons in protest of the Termination bill (Esquire Magazine 1970). Despite the failure, it brought due attention to the neglectful practices of the BIA in Washington. Mad Bear has said of the BIA, “We have little regard for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They have cheated Indian people too much, stolen too much money” and people are “…not to be afraid of the BIA puppets who ‘are taking your land and money, but to stand up and talk back’” (Akwesasne Notes 1970e).

Perhaps one of the most renowned of his efforts, Mad Bear visited Cuba in July 1959 (Esquire Magazine1970). In 1958, Mad Bear encouraged the Miccosukee to move toward declaring their sovereignty regarding land lease disputes with Florida and the tribe “threatened to bring suit against the United States at the International Court of Justice at The Hague” (Matthiesson 1984: 38). The following year, they organized a meeting and met with Fidel Castro of Cuba to sign a friendship treaty in which the Miccosukee Nation and Cuba exchanged recognition of sovereignty (Matthiesson 1984: 38). The U.S. government, however, did not look upon this exchange too kindly and began to follow Mad Bear after his return to the United States. The Miami immigration department threatened to take away his U.S. citizenship, to which he scoffed because he considers himself Haudenosaunee, for overstaying his permit in Cuba and two FBI agents followed him closely on his travels homeward (Esquire Magazine 1970).

The 1960s and ‘70s found Mad Bear usually away from Tuscarora territory as he became involved with the North American Indian Unity Caravan, the Alcatraz Takeover, the Indian Nationalist Movement of America, and other activities. It is presumed he was also still taking part in the Merchant Marines during this time, which may explain many gaps in his presence during these decades. In 1967, a week-long convention was held at the Tonawanda Seneca longhouse including “175 delegates from fifty tribal nations” that discussed spiritual, cultural, and political issues facing Indigenous peoples (Treat 2003: 23). What followed this convention was of even more significance – the start of the North American Indian Unity Caravan. A cross-country motorcade followed the convention where groups of Indians from multiple tribes traveled westward together for their cause, touring for six years. Mad Bear was a staunch supporter of the Caravan and took on organizing and public relations roles after the media began to pry into and misrepresent their purpose. The Caravan “formally begun in 1967, is an independent, flexible group traveling about the United States and Canada, reeducating Indian people to be proud of their history and to stand up for their rights… and to present a united front to obtain their natural and lawful rights” (Akwesasne Notes 1970e). According to Mad Bear, the Caravan “does not enter Indian territory and say we want to be your leaders, but it attempts to inspire people to stand up for their rights and to work together for Indian unity” (Akwesasne Notes 1970e). The Caravan in turn inspired the creation of the North American Indian Travelling College, organized by Ernest Benedict and later the Great White Roots of Peace led by Tom Porter.

Mad Bear continued to stay active with the Caravan, visiting numerous Native communities and college campuses. He was present at a four-day convention at Tonawanda in 1969, becoming the spokesperson because of media scrutiny and misrepresentation (Treat 2003). In the year 1969, he was also present at conventions at St. Regis territory and Maniwaki in what became a highly publicized venture into Canada because he was deported and banned from Canada in 1966 for refusing to submit to Department of Indian Affairs’ demands (The Globe and Mail 1969). Numerous news stories followed his border-crossing, bringing attention to Haudenosaunee border-crossing rights (Massena Observer 1969; Standard Freeholder 1969). In 1975, he became director of the Indian Nationalist Movement of America.

Mad Bear was traced to some of the greater known activist activities as well. He is said to have participated in the Alacatraz Takeover in 1969, but there are few accounts that corroborate this. It is known, however, that he went to check on Richard Oakes after his daughter’s death due to a treacherous fall and he later practiced healing medicine on Oakes alongside Peter Mitten (Boyd 1994). Later, in 1978, Mad Bear also took part in the Longest Walk in Washington, D.C. (Matthiesson 1984). Mad Bear took part in smaller activist activities as well, taking part in fish-ins with the Northwestern tribes and other spiritual conventions.

The 1980s appeared to be rather quiet times for Mad Bear as his health declined before his death. He officially retired from the Merchant Marines in 1977 (New York Times 1985). His health eventually took a turn for the worse and he was often in a weakened state due to possible diabetes-related complications and he needed medical attention (Boyd 1994). Anderson’s brother relates that the last years of his life were difficult as he was left financially destitute from his traveling and physically worn down from his health and years on the road (Duane Anderson, Interview, 18 November 2010). He never married nor had any children. Symbolically, his family consisted of those he met while he was on the road as he once stated, “No longer will Indians living on reserves in Arizona or British Columbia feel alone. They know now that we can all be together in times of trouble and that once again we are one family” (Akwesasne Notes 1970f)