I have to say that I am not liking the news of late. It is stressful, worrisome. It seems that the US government is paving the way to attack another country even though most of the people in this country are against that.

I've been thinking about where to go with my artwork. When I create a painting, it is not for myself...I paint for the healing of whomever needs it when they see it. I paint to help people see things maybe a bit differently. I try to paint so people remember what it truly important.

I think I've been an activist all of my life. I was always standing up for those getting bullied on the playground, I protested China's crackdown on students at their embassy and the United Nations in New York, and I worked on Native American issues for years. I gave all of that up after the World Trade's. Why?

I worked with Tony Blackfeather, who was a UN rep, for a couple of years. He was trying to take the United State's government to the World Court for abrogation of Treaty Rights. We were starting to be heard and make headway. I went up to Canada and spoke at a huge conference urging Indigenous people to support the people there that were trying to do the same for Canada. Several governments were working against us obviously including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Canada and the US (all countries with large indigenous populations), but we were making progress...then the World Trade's happened, the war started and Tony died.

While living on the rez, I was often harassed by the FBI. We all were. Anyone working for the rights of the tribe was no matter what the issue was. I think everyones phones were tapped. I remember a sheriff lured me to a restaurant just off the rez. I was a reporter at the time, and he called me saying he had information on a story pretending to be someone else. We were getting ready to do a peaceful protest regarding the gruesome murders of two Lakota men just outside of White Clay, Nebraska. He informed me that FBI sharpshooters would be in the trees pointing their guns at the women and children in case anything got out of hand. Wounded Knee II ready to be made. I was furious obviously, and went back to the rez in a panic. Do I say something or not say something? I didn't want them to control us, but if something happened, how would I live with it? I ended up telling a couple of the leaders of it, and they went ahead with the march. I went...I watched...I saw them in the trees disguised in camouflage. We all did.

A few days later I was driving out to the hospital, and I noticed that I was being followed. I kind of took this person on a wild goose chase through the village until I finally got sick of it. I stopped my car and got out. He stopped his, got out and stared at me for a long time before getting back in his car and speeding off.

All of this time that they spent watching us...the people that were trying to create peace through peaceful means, and they didn't even see what was really going on in their own backyard. They are watching the peacemakers instead of the few people that truly do want to cause harm. I lost friends in the World Trade's. I used to work in them years ago....and they were busy watching us....in the scheme of things, I was the smallest of fish in the whole plan to go the World Court. I just wrote about it.

So I gave up activism and I turned to my artwork....and now with all of this chaos in the world, I wonder what the good is in that? I do know that wherever art is, it feels like a better place to me. There is a town about 80 miles north of here that is filled with murals. When you drive through it, you can't help but smile. Kids run up to them in awe...People seem happier in communities where art is everywhere!

I've been thinking about creating a non-profit art society...one dedicated to creating peace through art...pointing out where peace doesn't exist through art...art can communicate things that words never can...I want this society, if it ever happens, to be one that doesn't care about borders....that just cares about who the art peacekeepers are and supporting them in some way. I have no idea if it will ever work out, but it's a nice dream...I just don't know if I have the money or the energy to create it...maybe one day.