Three years ago almost to the day, we launched our Lair of Hunterbear website www.hunterbear.org
It's a roily river that gets bigger -- and wider and deeper and richer -- as it goes steadily along. It's not unusual for it to draw 300 or more hits per day -- activists, academics, accidentals et al. -- and we regularly draw solid comments from a wide range of folks, nationally and internationally. Increasingly, for the last year, I've been approached by high school and college students doing papers -- and [always the professor] I'm only too happy to provide appropriate references and other contacts and even assist in structural arrangement. [I do Not write the papers -- nor has anyone asked me to do so!] Hunterbear is now very broadly linked globally. We are also hooked up with many private and organizational Native American websites in North America. I'm sending this to a few discussion lists and to a wide range of individuals. Recently, I've been quietly disengaging formally and informally from some lists [even a few on which I've been since my involvement as list participant began about 2 1/2 years ago], simply because the respective focus of those lists appears to have shifted substantially away from my traditionally primary interests: e.g., grassroots socialism, Native rights and civil rights, civil liberties, militant labor. [And I don't know how much my things are read in those particular list settings.] The current international crises do demand, I recognize, the best rational efforts of all of us -- but, in some instances, this seems to have become an essentially single-minded thrust at the multi-faceted expense of other sectors along the front in the Save the World Business. Among the several lists on which I remain, of course, are those three of which I'm moderator. Our Lair of Hunterbear website grew directly out of an earlier effort we made: "Red Wobbly." This began in August, 1999 [with the word "revolution" in its long address] but the arrangement with the "host" MSN Homepages -- was extremely unsatisfactory from the outset and became more so when the site, for whatever reason, was totally out of commission via MSN from mid-November 1999 until mid-January, 2000. Almost 100 messages from me to its technical assistance component were completely non-productive. We then began to prepare Lair of Hunterbear [our own domain] at that point -- [ now hosted by Earthlink] and unveiled it in mid-February, 2000. >From its outset, the major thrust of Hunterbear has been multi-faceted ecumenical social justice activism -- without regard to tribal and ideological intricacies. It does have two corollary dimensions: one is to provide accurate contemporary and historical information about myself and my life and times and those of certain close colleagues -- and the other is to consistently publicize the still continuing and bizarre attacks of various kinds which we've encountered, from both a Federal/state/local "lawmen" task force and local/regional racists as well -- here in Idaho. Those began immediately following our return to the Mountain West in the summer of '97. Any reasonably effective social justice activist is well aware that when one "fishes for trout, expect to be bitten by mosquitoes." I was born with a tough hide and a thick skull and those have served me very well from babyhood onward. But I'm only human and do become fed up with vilifying attacks -- though I remain essentially and stubbornly undiverted from my social justice commitments. Sometimes these attacks come crudely on discussion lists -- but are often things surreptitiously circulated on "private" mailing lists or whispering campaigns which eventually [in the fashion of waves on vast Moosehead Lake] do reach me. Sometimes I respond to these things and sometimes I don't bother. But there is, in Lair of Hunterbear, a wealth of materials relating very accurately and thoroughly to me, our family, my friends and colleagues, and our many endeavours over many decades. Much of this is grouped title/link in the upper sections of our extensive and detailed Index/Directory. A good place to go for the fundamental basics is my extensive and personal Background Narrative: http://www.hunterbear.org/narrative.htm My health continues to be excellent and I have not needed the services of any physician since 1988. I walk anywhere from four to six miles each day -- almost always in the pre-dawn darkness -- in the extremely rough and rugged and high up country that begins practically out of our back door. I also continue to publish very widely in print publications -- Left and/or academic. I was raised in two traditions which stress oral history -- and the conveyance of this through story telling: Native American and rural American Western. Over decades, students and friends have told me that I should write down those stories and eventually publish them. For over two years, I've been doing essentially that -- some of these are on the Hunterbear website. In due course, these written vignettes and selected older materials will be published together in conventional book form. I want to say at this point that I am deeply gratified to all of those who have spoken well of these writings of mine. This means a great deal to me and to my family always . When you are in a far-off -- albeit certainly fascinating -- place like rural Idaho, well, those comments and other good thoughts mean a hell of a lot! Gracias to you all. And at every juncture in the career of Lair of Hunterbear, I've been assisted faithfully and most effectively by my extended family -- and many friends indeed. I continue as a member of DSA [working with the excellent Anti-Racism Commission as its regional organizer], Solidarity, SPUSA [chair of its Native American Commission], and CCDS. And I work congenially with other Left groups as well -- and their publications. Our very best. In Solidarity Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] Micmac / St Francis Abenaki / St Regis Mohawk www.hunterbear.org Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ and Ohkwari' In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings. Then it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and remembering way. [Hunterbear] _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
