Since my love for Amerinds has taken me around the block a few times- for quite a while now, I’d like to put up something about Bucky Phillips and where I think he’s hiding and the reasons why he’s been able to ellude authorities for so long. Law enforcement should take note, if they don’t know this already. I have no idea what they’re being told, or how they’re being briefed, but all I know is–everything they can learn about this guy and how he operates could bring them one step closer to catching him before something else happens.

First, you have to consider the context under which we’re living today, and how quite a few indians hate the white man, plain and simple. We are to blame for their condition; their plight on the reservation, their hopelessness, even though there are those who-like Dr. Yeagley, don’t accept that line of thinking completely and have taken their own destiny into their own hands, and changed and transformed their lives, there are still those on the reservation. There are still those with little hope. Still, the situation with indians having been the recipients of government money for longer than we’ve been making social security payments to the elderly retired should make people stop and think for a moment. They are in a catch 22. If they leave the reservation, they may never be able to return. If they don’t, they are ’stuck’, but they remain indian there. Many chose not to leave, because leaving might mean leaving their heritage, cutting their hair, and having children who can’t pronounce indian words and wouldn’t recognize flatbread or wild rice soup or venison. So it’s a strange decision to make.

My friends, the Cywinks, from Whitefish Falls, Canada, have been living between the two worlds. Nick used to relate some of this to me, and it was upsetting what he had to deal with. Everywhere he went, in order to do business, he had to have a social security number. He didn’t have one. Indians didn’t and don’t need them; but once you enter the white man’s world and get one, all hell breaks loose. But that’s another story.

The Indian Nations are Sovereign; both here and in Canada. They are not a part of our American or Canadian government systems; they govern themselves. They have their own governments, their own ways of dealing with things, and they are ruled and given counsel by their elders, which to me is something we could learn from.

It is a unique and very beautiful thing.

The story of Ralph Phillips reminds me of Leonard Peltier’s, in a way. Phillips didn’t need to ‘escape’ with a can opener (yes, that’s the story–he opened a roof with a can opener and escaped). He only had about four days left in his sentence, and it was for a parole violation, I understand, so he was only serving something like 90 days. The sameness comes in where Phillips’ people-the Haudenosaunee in Canada are camped out on a construction site, trying to claim the land back that was taken from them over 200 years ago. This reminds me of what happened at Wounded Knee with Peltier, and people were killed over that incident, too. It’s that idea of entitlement after all these years that has me somewhat in awe, and even shaking my head. It seems to me to be a losing proposition, yet, they are grounded in their righteous cause, and will not budge. That would be like my going to Germany and demanding the land back that was taken from us from the nazis.

Phillips is a member of the Six Nations. Take a look at the map.

Now that might not mean anything to the casual observer, but the Haudenosaunee-or Six Nations (Iroquois tribes) comprise several indian nations throughout New York, and if I’m not mistaken, Pennsylvania, and even Ontario Canada. If that still doesn’t ring a bell, the Six Nations is the oldest democracy on earth; it’s comprised of the following tribes; the Onandagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Mohawks, Oneidas, and the Tuscaroras. I hope I haven’t left anyone out. But these tribes cover a great part of New York and Pennsylvania and Canada. And if you think about all that territory as being Ralph Phillips’ driving range with cover, that’s something law enforcement should stop and think about if they want to catch him. They should probably even be working with Canadian authorities.

Here is some history about the Haudenosaunee:

There are 17 Iroquoian communities altogether. The Haudenosaunee reside on the territory of their ancestors, known as reservations at Tonawanda, Cattaraugus, Allegheny, Onondaga, Oneida (New York), St. Regis and Cornwall Island (Akwesasne), Oneida (Wisconsin), Seneca-Cayuga (in Oklahoma) and the Six Nations, Caughnawaga (Kahnahwawke), Oka (Kahnahsatke), Deseronto (Tyendinega), and Gibson Reserves in Canada. The Tuscarora has had to relocate several times. Original lands in North Carolina were lost as a result of two wars with the English and Cherokee Indians. The Tuscarora migrated north to Virginia, Pennsylvania and eventually to central New York near Binghamton. During the Revolutionary War, the Tuscarora villages were destroyed by the American army and the Tuscarora came to the protection of the British at Fort Niagara and were eventually give a mile square plot of land at the present location of the reservation.

It’s an absolutely lovely area–that area around Niagara Falls, but it’s frightening that Phillips is angry, armed, and runnning in the woods and along the backroads, in stolen vehicles, and on foot, a fugitive who’s been featured on America’s Most Wanted.

To my knowledge, the situation in Caledonia Canada continues with a standoff between the local population and the indians. 22 Police officers have reportedly resigned. The Haudenosaunee are demanding the return of their land, threatening locals at gunpoint, shooting their guns at night, and terrorizing the locals in what used to be a quiet, sleepy, white picket fence type town. Now they’ve taken over a construction site there and refuse to leave. This land was ’stolen from them’ over 200 years ago, and they want it back. So you see, these people are strong, proud, and are very willing to take a stand for what they believe is right. And they are taking their land back, much like it was taken from them–at the point of a gun.

Regardless as to whether Phillips is a hot head, the fact remains that about the time that the Caledonia Canada situation was heating up (early August), so was Phillips’ personal life here in the United States. He had allegedly been with his daughter’s mother, Kasey Crowe, at her house. Who knows what brought Patrina Wright, his daughter, to her mom’s house where he was staying? Probably the knowledge that her father was there, and that he’d have the opportunity to see his grandchildren. Because she brought them with her, her three-month old still nursing at her breast. When the authorities found out that she had done this, they took the children away from her for a week, returning them to the custody of their father a week later. But none of this sat well with Ralph Phillips. The state maintains that Patrina’s children are endangered by being near their grandfather. I’m sure that Patrina and Kasey Crowe don’t feel that way; they love him. I gather Patrina Wright would do anything to see her father, and her psychological makeup is much like his–she actually at one point PUNCHED a trooper in the face. Up until this past weekend, Phillips was not guilty of a serious crime. Now, after the troopers were staked out at Kasey Crowe’s house, and someone (allegedly Ralph Phillips) shot them and one died this past Sunday, things are very different. Now Ralph Phillips is a murder suspect, and if he’s not careful, he’ll be a dead one before long.

The police should be working with the indian people, just like in the movie with Val Kilmer where he played a part-indian law man brought to the Souix reservation in “Thunderheart”. If they could find someone who identifies with them and is at least part indian, that would be the way to approach it. Otherwise, more good men are going to die.

This is Kasey Crowe who has been helping Ralph Phillips and is the mother of their daughter, Patrina Wright.

This is Bucky Phillips without the fu-manchoo mustache or full grown beard, both of which are pictured on wanted posters. I would venture to say if he’s smart, he may be trying to alter his appearance, so people should be looking at all the photographs of him. I think the picture on the Wanted Poster doesn’t show enough of his face to help much.

This is Patrina Wright, Kasey and Ralph’s daughter, who has three small children, one of whom is very young-not even a year old.

This is Richard Cantanese, the father of Patrina Wright’s children. When Patrina Wright’s children were taken from her because she was exposing them to her father, an escaped con, because of ‘child endangerment’, they were returned to their father, Richard Cantanese. Photos courtesy WGRZ.com

Needless to say it’s a mess, and I hope and pray nobody else gets killed as a result of all this. Bucky should turn himself in, unless he doesn’t care about dying. Knowing he has all these people who love him and support him in spite of his situation-and three young grandchildren seems enough of a reason to live -but maybe that’s just me.

Funeral arrangements are being made for Longobardo, and Baker’s condition was upgraded from Critical to Serious, and now downgraded again to “Critical”. I’ll try to keep an eye on this thing during the week, and if there is any information that comes out about Longobardo’s funeral, and I don’t have it up yet, would you please let me know?

ralph bucky williams