How Native Men Treat Native Women and Children, Part 1 of Way Too Fucking Many!

My wife, Rhonda "Shusli" Baseler-Johnson, has been involved in a conversation with a group of Native women on her facebook. It is a discussion of the hero worship of a well known Native man, now passed on, who was a self-aggrandizing fucking asshole, and how such Native men treat women and children. This conversation set my wife and I on fire. These are conversations not heard in Native country often but should be on the forefront, ESPECIALLY THE WAY NATIVE MEN TREAT WOMEN! Here is one of thousands of stories that taught me to hate being Indian:

My wife, Shusli, and I, were a part of a Native American radio collective called "Mitakuye Oyasin" some years back.

Shusli had found a news documentary called "Rape on the Reservation." She wanted to get a program produced around the survivors of rape that were portrayed in the program and discuss the issue of rape in Indian country.

I explained this to one of my other co-hosts after the show (Shusli was unable to make it). This particular co-host told me on occasion that he was told by a Sundance chief that he didn't need to dance, which seemed to insinuate some sort of ultra-holiness. He also used to talk a lot about "matriarchy." His version of matriarchy seemed straight out of the RM playbook and seemed to have NOTHING to do with women. However, knowing he always talked about matriarchy, I figured he would understand about Shusli wanting to produce a program about "Rape on the Reservation." Here's what he told me:

"I have an objection to doing a show on 'Rape on the Resrvation.'"

"You do? What is it?" I asked.

"I don't want people to think all Indian men are assholes."

I was so dumbfounded I couldn't respond. How could this alleged matriarchy supporter say such a thing?

I told Shusli later about being so dumbfounded by that statement and not being able to respond. I did think of a response later which I don't recall ever telling him: "This isn't about Indian men. It is about Indian WOMEN being RAPED BY INDIAN MEN."