Jan 30
2009

electriceddieif obama stood in front of our general council, they would ask what he has done in the week that he has been in office. then they would attempt to stifle any change he proposed.  like them republicans. we all in this together, but always have someone trying to hold up progress.

this will take longer than a week.  more than likely it will take years to recover from this economic crisis. or we will merely adjust to it. the numbers attached to the stimulus package are staggering. to the average joe indian anyway.

our national deficit will never be paid in our lifetime. so the solution is to just spend more money and go deeper in debt. how effective will that be, after all it is our government that will decide who gets what help. the last stimulus check should have just been handed over to the oil companies. one has already reported record profits for the year. billions have already been spent to bail out some industries. wall street rewarded themselves with billions in bonuses after getting bailed out.

you gotta wonder will indians be included in the bailout. many indians supported obama. the state to the north of us said they would include the tribes that lived there. the numbers given out by our state say nothing bout indians. typical. we help the state, they wont help us.

we have lost many programs. they need a bailout. services are the first thing cut.  but we still have lotsa money for traveling around though. it would save us money if they just partied at home. maybe we can be like wall street. the programs go under then we reward all directors with a bonus.

they finally got rid of that governor up north. he maintained his innocence to the end. usually the rich and powerful merely offer an apology and ask to move on. like that erases what they did. this guy said i did nothing wrong. some lawmakers were disgusted he was trying to sell a senate seat. really. thats not the way it is done. usually special interests groups buy it for you. then you dont demand payment for signing a bill. you already owe them for it. thats the way it works.

i still say our tribe shoulda bought that seat. may have been easier to get gaming there. the way it is, that may never happen. it may be for the best anyhow. so far we have given away 125% of any profits we may make. we have none left to give. it may be cheaper to say ‘look we will give you 10 million more then lets walk away from this.’  just pass it out to whoever wants a piece. we cant afford anymore.

i get amused by a t.v. commercial. it says you can make money just by collecting all that gold you have lying around gathering dust. gold? what fukken gold. this injun aint got no gold lying around.

and i get emails all the time in my junk mail. many of them offer me a chance to keep 25% of millions. all i got do is send some money to someone i dont know. i have passed on many chances to be a millionaire.

i guess people play on the times we live in.  we do need change. if we didnt have an obama we would have created one. we need someone to tell everyone you gotta have hope. things will get better. man is a resilient creature. we can adept to anything. well ‘cept for the rich. they gotta be bailed out by the government.



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Jan 27
2009

electriceddiei have an old  ”porcupine hair wanted” ad on powwows. com.  its been there since 06. i am always  looking for more porcupine hair, cant make roaches without it.  i finally got a response about the ad. someone has 20 ounces of porky hair. we are working out a business arrangement. the guy gets that much hair every year. i said i could buy that much every year. i dont deal with the indian supply houses. they buy it low from guys like him then mark it up and sell it to guys like me. i cut the middle man out. then i can pass the savings on.

i buy all my hair from individuals. i have a deal with these two guys that are trappers. i used to get some from this lady in montana. bought from her for a few years, but havent heard from her. they sell all that they get directly to me. they dont pull the long hair out.  i pay more than the supply houses. we both get a better deal.

i buy hair in quantity, usually by the pound. i thought that out of that much hair you would get some long hair. wrong. i bought a pound of hair from a place in south dakota. didnt get much long hair. another time i was in washington state and bought a pound of hair. that place said they pull all the long hair out and sell it for a higher price. then they send the rest to that place in south dakota i bought from. so the stuff i bought already had the long hair pulled out.

i bought hair from some of the supply houses advertised as guaranteed to be long for $60 an ounce. some of it is. but most of it aint. so you pay more for it but dont really get what they advertise. a typical roach may take an ounce and a half. so thats $90 worth of hair. that cost has to be passed on to the buyer.

i have bought from ebay. bad deal. some advertise hair as being up to a certain length when only a few hairs are that long. then the bidders drive the price up. you end up paying more than what it is worth.

there have been a few times when i was on a road trip when i spotted some porky carcasses on the roadside. i pulled over faster than you could say ‘per cap’. i would be pulling the hair as cars whizzed by. some would stare at me, but i didnt care. i was scoring some hair. and it cost me nothing.

now and then i get requests for a 24″ roach with 10″ hair in front. yeah right. if  they only knew what it took to accumulate enough hair of that length. probably several pounds of hair. you would have to be real tight with the roachmaker to get that kind of deal.

i am always looking for more sources for quality porcupine hair. so far i have been lucky in finding it. over the years i have paid my dues. i bought alot of hair. paid more than some was worth. i buy enough hair that i dont have to sell inferior roaches. like you see in the kit roaches. thats a good scam. it is far better to buy it from a good roach maker. then you get a better roach.

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Jan 23
2009

went to a movie today. seen ‘gran torino’.  it starred and was directed by clint eastwood. seeing how old he has gotten reminded me of how old i am getting. the guy gets better and better with age. it was a matinee. lotsa of old people there. seems everywhere i go there are old people. at the casino, buffets and matinees. it was a good movie. worth the matinee price of $7.25.   glad i didnt go to the regular price movie for $9.25.  maybe we need to bail out the movie industry too.

i was going to see that movie the first weekend it came out but it was too crowded. i don’t like crowded movies or restaurants. got no problem with a packed allen fieldhouse to see the jayhawks play basketball though. the more packed the better. i like royal and chief games too. but they dont get big crowds. may have something to do with fielding losing teams.

had visitors last night. i showed my sisters how to fix fluffs on my nieces outfit. they are heading to a pow wow this weekend in oklahoma. said i should take off too. i said yeah, but i have to help with a ceremony sunday.

i was reading some other blogs. seen where our brother leonard was transferred. at the new place he was attacked by some other inmates and had some injuries. then he was place in solitary confinement. when are they gonna let up on him? you dont see any information like that in the mainstream media.

seems like people are looking to the new prez for hope. this country needs something new. i believe it was good for us to elect a black president. it is about time. i wonder  how long it will be before we have another. or a woman, or mexican american president. or dare we say an indian president. we already had an indian vice president. he was from this state. i had a history teacher that talked about him. the teacher said curtis worked in congress and had lotsa information about how indians were being cheated out of their land etc. so he was offered the vice presidency as a payoff.  i dont know if this is true. just remember hearing that in school. usually you dont hear anything like that.

all the work on my house is finally finished. i am glad. it made this old house look new again. we spend more time in our homes than anywhere else. i love my home. i appreciate the work that went into it. i got a new 50 year roof. hail damage ruined the old one. the contractors that ‘fixed’ it really ripped the tribe off. they didnt even replace some of the damaged shingles. i built an addition on my house a few years back. they just left those shingles on there. so the roof had 3 different kinds of shingles. and they didnt replace the guttering even though insurance was paid for that. and they left the old t.v. antennae brackets up there. there was no need for them as i have cable. now the roof is good.

the linoleum had 24 years worth of wear on it. it was covered over with a more durable laminate that looks like a tiled floor. it strenghten the floor and made it look better. we had to move all the furniture out of the rooms that got new flooring.  then move it all back. my plumbing is fixed. i am real happy with it. i own this home and will never move again. spent too many years moving around. bumming around. at one time i carried everything i owned in my backpack. those days are behind me. been here so long that the trees i planted are 20 feet high now.

all the work being done on the house kinda disrupted my routine. i still sorted porky hair. done more of my art work. did some writing. working on anutha chapter now. now that the workmen are gone i can get back to my routine.

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Jan 22
2009

or at least in da wood.  i was cruising round da rez today. i was taking tobacco around for a ceremony. i seen a guy i knew. he asked me how the wood was working out. i said i am about out. i told him i only got 3 half loads all winter.

i had to buy some with my per cap to get by. i said i dont know why i have to buy mine when many have it stacked outside. and my nephew and the crew he worked on brought me some. i told the guy i just figured someone didnt like me. thats the way it works many times in our tribal organization. it dont even have to have anything to do with you. if they dont like someone in your family then they dont like you either. and you get nothing.

the guy i knew said he would cut it for me. said i had to have a work order in. i told him the bureacucrat on the phone said once i was on the list that was it. they would take care of it. a month and a half into winter i still didnt have any wood. we called a number of times. nothing.  a council guy said he would look into it. nothing.  i thought that was the way it worked. i was told i was on the list. someone else called and was told they took care of everyone on the list. i didnt get any wood . i finally got some and it was only half a load. then two half loads since then.  i assumed that was it. i wasnt gonna beg anyone. if i was able i would just do it myself. those days are gone.

so today the guy i knew brought me a load. they were told to wait for a work order. i was told i wouldnt have to fill anything out. another case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing i guess. reality is some tribal employees wont do a damn thing for anyone. thats sad. i have to run ceremonies all the time. whether i want to or not. whether i am busy or not. i just do it. i dont make up excuses. i would hate to be like one of them tontos.  then when they need help they come to me. and i do it.

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Jan 19
2009

a few years back some touristas came to the tribal office. they wanted to talk to someone that had left the reservation and had come back. i remarked that ‘i left da rez last weekend and came back’.  they continued on as though they hadnt heard me. guess it wasnt funny. usually some people only want preconceived ideas of theirs to be reinforced. this country njun wouldnt give them that.

well i left da rez again this past weekend. went to haskell to see my niece tara play basketball. was alot of rez folks there. all to see tara play. the other team won. they were bigger, stronger and looked like they were better coached. tara played more last year at johnson county. haskell better wise up and play that girl more. she is good.

i got a kick out of the haskells team name. they are the ‘fighting indians’. sounds like me and my brothers back when we used to party together. if indians use the term indians its alright i guess. i get grief now and then for my use of the term ‘njun’. i dont need to justify myself to some bleeding heart. i lived in the days when i was called a ‘fukken injun’. i got into some hellacious fights over that. carrying a sign and protesting wouldnt have done any good. ignorance ruled those days. some idiots only understood an ass kicking. that usually stopped the usage of the term.

being on campus brought back some memories. i had gone to haskell over a ten year period. i was young and crazy then. it was my heavy drinking days. its a wonder i even graduated. got an a.a. in liberal arts. it was a juco then. the course work was no challenge to me,  my out of control drinking was the problem. being in a non stop party scene didnt help. the bars would be crowded with hundreds of indians.

i primarily studied journalism there. wrote my first editorial there. and i was into photography big time.  ironically it was there that i learned roach making. for years  the mission was to churn out good little indians that went into civil service. someone had the idea that they should also teach indian culture. out of guilt maybe. so i took a ‘indian studies module’ for one credit hour. 200 students enrolled and only 4 of us finished the class. thats why there aint many roach makers.

while at the game my sister called me and asked if i wanted some cheech and chong tickets. they were 100 dollar tickets. i said not really. william took them. he said there were lots of gray haired people there. yeah. nothing funnier than old people still trying to suck on a joint. but on the other hand maybe we need the peace and love from them days. better than the wars and violence we live with today.

last time i went to the clinic i took tests. they said my cholesterol was high. so i been working on that. for years i have been eating fresh eggs for breakfast. so i started to eat oatmeal instead. i hated the stuff at boarding school. we had to eat it everyday. cept sunday, when we were rewarded with stale corn flakes. i wouldnt touch either for years. well in my cheech and chong days i would nail half a box of corn flakes. the other day i said hell with it and had sausage and eggs. gotta live sometime. i work with my diet as much as i can.

seen on the news where a movie shot round here is coming out. it was written by some professors. it is about indian boarding school. there are many people around here that went off to boarding school. we dont need to see a movie to understand the experience. probably could add things that the professors would never understand.

i have to check my junk email now and then so i dont lose something i need to see.  i get all kinds of stuff. usually scams of some kind or other. i even got a spam text message on my phone. i never read any of it. just delete it. i have to check it cuz anything with the word forward or fwd goes directly there. got tired of seeing the cutesy forward stuff. but i have to check for messages that are replied to. they go there too.

while at the game i got another order for a roach. so i am kept busy.

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Jan 16
2009

zach wamego is 13-2 in wrestling and ranked 5th in state.

zach wamego is 13-2 in wrestling and ranked 5th in state.

i went to royal valley’s last home wrestling meet last night. my nephew zach texted me about it. so i went to watch him wrestle. he won both matches by pins. he won his last match in under a minute to bring his record to 13-2. he wrestles in the 285 pound weight class. a radio station said that he was ranked 5th in the state. i am hoping he advances on to state and wins it. i will try to go see him again.

it was senior night, so they introduced zach and his mother rachel. i know my brother mikey would have been proud of him as i was. many of zach’s family were there to support him in his last home meet. it was a fun outing. i got to talk to zach in between matches. he told me that football signing day is february 4th at royal valley high school. he will sign that day with the school he will attend next year. i plan to go watch that. he made all league as offensive and defensive lineman.  he also made honorable mention all state lineman. he was listed at 6’6 and 315 pounds. i wish i could take off weight like that.

i was watching one match with my nephew jaiden. i asked him when the guy was gonna hit the other with a chair. he answered so seriously that this was a different kind of wrestling. it was. they even had a few girls that wrestled. they did good. i remember back in bar fights seeing some girls whip up on some dudes. it is a different world we live in. girls can do anything.

got my ballot for the prairie band gaming election yesterday. i will send in my ballot soon, i vote in every election. i already decided i will vote for my brother gary and my nephew tug. tug looks slick in a suit. there is no rhyme or reason in how people vote in tribal elections. sadly we are at a point where somebody dont like somebody in every election. we haven’t gotten past that yet. then no matter who wins, someone wants to get rid of the one voted in. guess elections dont mean a thing. that affects our development. some people wont run because they dont want the hating involved in tribal politics. i wonder how strong we could be if we got along with each other. we could be a very powerful entity.

that reminds me we have a general council this saturday. i quit going to them. they are an exercise in spinning our wheels. we elect people to represent us, then allow mob rule to control us. we have our quarterly saviors step forward with solutions to every problem. dont know why they dont run for office. some do, but cant get elected.

i have been told that people are having trouble sending in comments to my site. i told them that for now i wasn’t allowing comments. i dont want my site to be full of anonymous comments  of someone hating on someone else. that is ignorant. it never solves anything. it is hurtful to both parties and to us as a people. and i used to get people that wanted to blog on my site after i built it. if someone has something to say, then he or she can pay for a site with their name attached to it. the internet is full of websites that will allow that.

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Jan 14
2009

the sun came up in the east. k u smacked down k-state again. a cold front is moving in. politicians promise they will fix what they helped create. all is normal i guess. well except a global economic crisis. and an unending war. and new wars are popping up all over the globe. big business is getting bailed out by the government. while no help for the average joe. i guess that is normal in the times we live in.

i had cabin fever today so i ventured out to one of the native gaming establishments. shoulda stayed home. but my upper back and neck is sore from sorting porky hair all week. i didnt win but played for 3 hours. thats sorta like winning.  while at a machine, i heard a soft thud. i turned and seen an old lady had fallen off her chair. the casino cop ran up to help her, as well as a few others. seeing i would be of no assistance, i stayed at my machine and played. another gentleman a few chairs over also looked and seen all was taken care of. the lady said she was alright. we kinda looked at each other. i didnt want to appear to be a heartless bastard. she was back at her machine in no time. in gaming, no blood – no foul. i didnt feel bad then.

the treasury nominee didnt pay his taxes. said it was a mistake, and regretted it. so he may get approved anyway. when poor folks say the same thing, the gavel comes down loudly as sentence is passed. another rich guy is restricted to his penthouse, instead of being locked up. he scammed investors out of billions. someone robs a liquor store  of a few bucks and they will do years.

my home state will have a ‘revenue shortfall’ of $945 billion this year and next. they wont have expanded gaming this year after all. investors withdrew their bids. seems they didnt want to spend half a billion to build the state new casinos. so they will probably eye indian casinos again. trying to see how they can get a piece of the action. the easy solution is to take away from the indians.

there was a piece in todays local rag bout a dude in the 1850s. he fast talked some potawatomis into joining his wild west show. the guy got into a drinking spree in indianapolis. the show disbanded. the potawatomis had to walk back to kansas. damn…..

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Jan 14
2009

that is a question in potawatomi that asks ‘did you win?’.  i dont get asked that very much. probably cuz not many speak the language anymore. my mother used to ask me that. i would put on my stoic warrior face and just kinda grunt. usually i didn’t.

i go to the ‘indian’ casinos now and then. they are always identified as ‘indian’ casinos. as opposed to what i dont know. i go there because i live about 10 minutes from ours. its only a short trip to the other two closest casinos, maybe 45 minutes. the silent drive home seems longer than that if i lose. really they are the only game in town. my hometown has two liquor stores, and two churches. usually they have to be balanced in numbers. it also has a coupla antique stores. since i dont drink or buy antiques i head to the casino for a night out. and the boarding school experience keeps me away from churches.

there was a big billboard on the highway that asks the question ‘do you have a gambling problem’. then it lists a hotline to call if you do. only gambling problem i have is that i dont win. that billboard was located close to another one that advertised our casino. the billboards that advertise indian casinos usually dont have any brown skins on them. sorta a paradox. must be some reason to that, but it escapes me.

gamblers are like alcoholics. often they dont admit they have a problem, even if they do. i see the same people in all the casinos i go to. i wonder if they got a problem. but then they must wonder the same thing about me.

some gamblers are a superstitious lot. they do little bits of mojo to help them win, like maybe carrying a good luck piece. or they rub the machine. as if caressing the machine will turn it on to a big win. personally i dont like someone that stands there and watches me. i know i dont lose cuz they are watching me  but sometimes i just wish they would get the hell away from me. i carry a ‘lucky’  beaded necklace that holds my players card. i dont carry all my cards. i travel alot so i have like 16 of them at last count. i didnt pick one up at a number of places. that would have been one heavy necklace.

the players card keeps track of your points. a great gimmick. if you spend one dollar, you get one point. then when you get some points built up you can redeem them for some playing cash. i never have many points built up. i cash them in if i got 5 bucks. sometimes i get a coupon from the casinos. it can be redeem for playing cash. i dont get many of them. maybe cuz i am not a high roller. i never get one from our casino. dont lose enough money there.

i hear gamblers say our machines are ‘too tight’. that dont stop anyone from going there. during the occasional promotion you cant find a machine. the place is packed. marketing should take heed of that. others say you can win at the other casinos. been my experience i dont win there either. i win enough to keep me playing. havent learned yet to stay  away from them. common sense will tell anyone that it is in the house’s favor. thats why we get a per cap every 3 months. the possibility exists though that any machine at any given moment can pay out the big jackpot. thats what gambling is all about. trying to hit the big one. i am happy with just winning free spins.

i play the penny machines. my limited cash lasts longer that way. i hear many people say ‘i only play pennies’. kinda like an alky that says ‘i only drink beer’. it minimizes it. penny players bring in the most revenue for casinos. the casinos kiss the high rollers ass though. they comp them for everything. maybe they should do that to the penny players.

so most of the time i can answer the question with ‘tto gip ka na ge si’. i didnt win. i have hit a few times. once my wins paid for my trip to a big pow wow back east. another time i had 11 bucks and hit a thousand. life is a gamble. so we all gamble to some extent. people that played the stock market the past year lost more than i did. i may have had more fun even when i didnt win. so if anyone asks me if i am going gambling i can give them my best cutesy palin ‘y betcha’. a penny saved is a penny earned. but a penny gambled can pay off.

my 'lucky' necklace

my 'lucky' necklace

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Jan 11
2009

i took my faithful dog  ’ko nu gish’  for a 2 mile walk today. i have heard people that have said they would start walking when it warms up. i heard others that said they would wait til it cools off.  for whatever reason they just dont walk. i dont let winter stop me from walking. last week i logged 6 miles.  i have 2 today. but the forecast says we will get an artic front coming in this week.  so i walk when i get the chance. i’m like oprah. need to drop a few pounds.

i like to go get a paper every sunday morning. sorta a ritual with me. i have the paper delivered to my mailbox the rest of the week. i noticed that the price of the sunday paper remained the same. the daily paper went up from 50 cent to 75.  Now you get less news for the increase in price. The daily paper is in two sections now. The sunday paper is also a bit thinner. even the tribal paper went from a monthly to once a quarter.

i kinda wonder  bout the mainstream media. a month or so ago they were forecasting some real dire times. something like the worst recession since 29. wouldnt say its a depression, just something bad news coming. now you dont hear much of it. so does that mean we aint having it so bad?  or they just backing off so people dont panic. i see changes happening. like the price of chicken feed went up but the weight of the bag went down. i used to buy 50  pound bags. now they are 40 pound bags. and they cost more. the cost of the paper went up and we get less news. same with other items. cost goes up and we get less. gas is creeping back up. i cut down on my powwowing the past coupla years cuz of the cost of gas. price went down when pow wow season was winding down.

just have to hold on. cuz change is coming. got a new prez and all that. least ways we told that. he got his work cut out for him. on the upside he dont have a tough act to follow. hope he gives the american people a break. big business is getting bailed out. how bout the rest of us.

i get google and yahoo alerts everyday. they key on the word ‘potawatomi’. so any news with that word in it is zapped to my email. i kinda notice that there is always news bout the other bands. but the prairie band dont get in the news often. must be the reason we rely on rumor so much. when you dont hear facts, you tend to make them up. or else we doing damn good.

i aint got no complaint bout them. i am just finishing up on my housing grant. i got a new front door, new plumbing, guttering, central air and a new 50 year roof. my floor will eat up the rest of the grant. i am getting a laminate put over the worn out vinyl. it will have a tile look to it. the cost is the same as putting new linoleum. and it will be more durable. it will stand up to the heavy traffic i get.  my humble house is looking good. i didnt get the full grant award cuz some bureaucrat decided i wouldnt. but i got lotsa bang for the dollar though. i am satisfied. i put lotsa my money into this house over the past 24 years. the flooring will cost more than what i got left in the grant so i will cover the rest. it will be worth it.

i tossed in the rest of the wood i had outside. getting ready for the cold snap coming. didnt have any back problems. thats good news. i see houses with wood stacked up neatly outside. i think that looks quaint. not practical though. i have to have the wood stacked in the basement, where i can put it into the stove. who wants to go outside to get some logs everytime the fire needs to be stoked up.

i have been sorting porcupine hair almost every day. i have piles of it every where. i can knock a roach out in three days. that is if i have all the material on hand ready to go. it takes weeks to sort hair. so when i get a bunch of it sorted i can make a number of roaches. i know this new website will keep me busy. and i can handle that.

'ko nu gish' answers commands in potawatomi

'ko nu gish' answers commands in potawatomi

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Jan 8
2009

The background image on this website is a section of a full mural on my screened in porch I built. It is a scene of an Indian village. I was inspired by diego riveria’s murals  while in mexico city. His murals tell the story of mexico. My mural will be a history of Indians when ever it is done. In the painting are various Indians including: a cigar store indian, the cleveland indian, lone ranger and tonto, billy jack, pow wow indians, christian indians and homie indians. I am pictured with a group of native prisoners i worked with. I tried to include many different animals. I hope to have all the clans represented in the picture.

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