OSEU 6: David Bald Eagle On Man-Made Laws (extended)

I'll tell you what I do believe in and see in the past generations during our life in the past generations we realize, I realize, that the laws, the laws, regulations, religion, everything that is brought here, we're not used to that. We're used to the Indian way of prayers or ways of life and we never were used to the European laws, man-made laws, these are man-made laws that we could never understand. Our law, the Indian way of life, our law is the law of nature and you never could go wrong in the law of nature. We know that we're not written, being written. We know that by heart and we know that, we know what's right and wrong and like we always tell our children what is right and wrong in everything, everything that we do and there's a prayer for everything. But your laws, I said, were brought from Europe. I said, we cannot understand that. There's so many of them, so many laws. You don't know which, how to turn it on, just maybe we could bump into some law that puts us in jail or something. We never know. We could be walking down the street, we've done something wrong. We look like somebody that did something wrong or anything like that. It's anything to get us in, to arrest us or to let us go, whatever. But we don't understand those. But if you talk to us in the Indian language or common, ordinary English language, what we're doing, we're breaking the law or anything like that, we can understand that. But if you could explain it to us, then we'll understand. We don't understand what you said, but it's true. We agree. So they take us and they put us in jail. There was a kid in jail for, he didn't know what for. He was walking down the street and they told him, they caught him and they said he beat the heck out of his wife. That kid would never hurt a mouse. He could never hurt a bird or anything, a little bird. He was always calm, quiet, and humorous, but his wife wanted to celebrate with somebody, some other kids, you know, and some other people. And they wanted him out of the way because he doesn't drink or do any of that stuff. So they put him in jail for what he didn't know. They said he beat his wife up and left. He never did, that kid never did hurt, like I said, never hurt anything. He still was, last year I think they let him out. But he was there for 12 years doing nothing. But he didn't understand. So that's why they got him in there. Nobody, he didn't know who to get to protect him or anything. He didn't know anything, no attorney or anything. If he spoke up or if somebody said anything, the people that knew him could have got him an attorney or anything, and that lady's still celebrating without interference from anybody, his kids. So the kids didn't even know why he's, their daddy's in there. Dave, would you say because the treaties also came from Europe, that sometimes there were things in the treaties that were just not, they wouldn't be understood? There's misunderstanding that the treaties were made by the President of the United States and the Armed Forces Commander, two. And the Chiefs, they sat together and they smoked a pipe a piece, and the General made out the orders, the treaty orders and everything. And they read it and they had an interpreter there, interpret the whole thing. And so the General signed it and the President of the United States signed it. Congress didn't have nothing to do with it, and the Senate had nothing to do with it. Just the President and the Commanding Officer. So the education comes from the armed forces and all the regulations come from the armed forces. So they have to take care of us. And I was in Germany about five, no it was about ten years ago, I was in Germany and I spoke to the armed forces in Germany, they were all there in that auditorium. My daughter was a colonel and she was sitting beside me and the generals were all sitting with her. And as I was speaking on the microphone, I told them about what happened at the Little Bighorn, I told them about that, and how the U.S. Army was defeated, I told them about that. And you could see that there were some Indian boys there in the army and they just, hey, And when I was talking there, I said that the army, no matter what country the U.S. Army goes to, if they have a base there, they are there to protect the natives of that country. I understand the treaties, I said, and that's what they do. In any country they occupy, they protect the natives of that country. And after I spoke, after I got through speaking, this general got up, this general came over and he, they called his name, he came over and he said, Chief Baldigo, everything you said was correct. Everything you said was right. According to the treaties, he said that, you said that any country the army occupies, they protect the natives of that country. Now tell me where you learned that. So I said, it's from my grandfather. My grandfather was way bold, I said, like I told you. He told me that. And I had an experience in Greenland when I was in the armed forces. They brought a lady to surgery, she was going to have an emergency surgery, a watered one. So they took her to the army hospital and then she was stuck at the entrance. The guys didn't know whether they should take her in there for surgery because she was an Eskimo girl, Eskimo woman. So they sent for the commanding officer of that post. So he came over, what's the trouble, he said. I was a guard there, during that time I was a steady guard there. This officer came over and he said, what's the trouble? So they told her, they told him, we're going to take this lady in for surgery, emergency surgery, but we don't know whether we should take her in or not, she's an Eskimo. And here he said, he looked at her and he said, take her in, take her in and have surgery, have that emergency surgery. Gave it to her. And he turned around and he said, we all stood there. He turned around and he told the personnel, all the guards, officers that were there, he says, any time that the United States Army occupies or has a post in any country, he says, they are to protect the natives of that country. Always keep that in mind, he said. That's the first thing we were told as officers. So I read, I mean, I saw that. When I was in the Army, that was told to us as a guard. And here the general said, that's right, he says, all the Army officers went through that. Any country we occupy, we are to protect the natives of that country. So when I talked to the chiefs, they said, what if they turn the Army on us? So I said, it never could be done, never will be done. I said, they're there, they're here to protect our country, the Army, the U.S. Army. They call themselves the U.S. Army.