ABSOLUTELY -- WELL, SOMEWHAT -- HERETICAL THOUGHTS  [HUNTER GRAY / HUNTER BEAR] -- A NUMBER OF POSTS --  [HUNTER BEAR]

This page contains a mix of a sampling of our best and more recent posts -- all with a social justice focus.

STILL HERE: SANGUINARY SKIES AND ALL [HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR - MAY 21, 2011]

THE LOST PROFESSOR [BUT NO LIFE REGRETS]  HUNTER BEAR  NOVEMBER 11 2009

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR / HUNTER GRAY / JOHN R SALTER JR: [NOVEMBER 11 2009]

Our grandson/son, Thomas, is here in Idaho for a very pleasant visit. He, of course, received his M.D. degree from the University of Minnesota last May and is presently doing his residency at the University of Iowa hospital -- with a focus on internal medicine and psychiatry. We were visiting about diverse matters, and got off into a brief discussion on ancient, traditional, and very vital to this moment Iroquois dream analysis. That, for those unaware, is an extremely intricate art -- involving, among other things, profound symbolic interpretation. "Western" practitioners of psychoanalysis have long been impressed.

I mentioned a recurrent dream of mine which, until a few weeks ago, appeared off and on for some years. In it, I'm in an unnamed university setting, searching desperately for the room in which my students are patiently waiting. And time is running out. I try here, I try there. Fruitlessly. And then the dream ends. This interesting pattern continued until, a couple of months ago, I found the room! And in the room were my students. And, seamlessly, I began my lecture, sparking good questions.

And then I awakened.

The meaning of these episodes, obviously tinged with a bit of pathos, has been clear from the beginning. Thomas had no problem agreeing with the travail of the "lost" professor. Wherever I have taught, I've always liked virtually every student I've had -- and it's been, I can say with no false modesty, mutual.

For decades, I've consistently described my primary vocation as a "social justice organizer." But, at the same time, even while pursuing that, I have taught for many years [and in a number of disciplines] in higher education -- about 30 years, mostly full-time [and usually summer sessions as well.] As I've written earlier: "Sometimes it's been full-time organizing and part-time teaching; or full-time teaching and full-time organizing; or simply organizing [which can be double-duty work in its own right!] I've worked with grassroots people from all sorts of ethnic and cultural backgrounds in militant and democratic organizations and movements."

But let me be very, very clear at this point: I -- and my good spouse of almost half a century, Eldri -- and our whole family have absolutely no regrets whatsoever about the always challenging Trail we've been on. And we will never regret a moment of it.

Almost immediately at our arrival here in Pocatello, Idaho -- mid-summer of 1997 -- it was clear that my reputation as a "radical" had preceded us: police surveillance [initially blatant], weird telephone experiences, extraordinary postal mail delays. And when we embraced the computer faith on December 12 1998, problems began which, as I've earlier noted, proceeded from the then-Clinton administration into the Bush period and now -- without a ripple -- into the Obama epoch. The basics are here: http://hunterbear.org/duel_in_the_shadows.htm

Much of this was exported and imported via the University of North Dakota and some collaterals where I had taught for 13 years -- in an atmosphere of increasingly poisonous hostility from much of the administration and some "colleagues." [Students, as always, were just fine.] At the time I left UND, I was a full professor, former departmental head [American Indian Studies], former chair of Honors, a member of the graduate faculty. Some of that flavor is well said by Professor Brian Rice, Mohawk:

. . .this appropriate contemporary note by Brian Rice [Mohawk], Canada:

"I was happy to have received a nice review from Hunter for my book. He was one of the old school Native Studies Professors who were as much or more activists than they were simply scholars. This included people like Art Solomon and others who were defining what Native Studies should be about in the late 60's and early 70's. A lot of them disassociated themselves from programs such these, not liking the direction they were heading in. People like Hunter were vilified by Anthropologists who believed Native Studies wasn't academic enough. In other words, they should be the ones teaching Native Studies. Many of these types such as at the University of North Dakota where Hunter taught, now run the programs. There are very few social activists left in the discipline who are involved in prison reform and such." [Brian Rice]

[See also http://www.hunterbear.org/UND.htm ]

A major piece of the situation here in Idaho involves an obvious [but not completely successful] attempt to blacklist me throughout the region. A very early effort of mine to secure part-time teaching at locally-based Idaho State University was quickly rebuffed [no reason given] and now, more than 12 years later, I have yet to speak anywhere on its campus in any capacity. [I have quite successfully spoken in other settings in our general region, some actually very "mainstream."] A few years ago, the hospital in our setting scheduled a Martin Luther King Day talk by me and, since it's right across the street from a portion of Idaho State, its organizers reasonably enough felt that the University might be interested as co-sponsor. And ISU, at its lower echelons, was enthusiastic; and all proceeded well for a few planning weeks -- Until! -- until the matter got into the school's upper stratosphere.

And then ISU backed out. Pressed for an explanation, one of the initial ISU staff enthusiasts indicated I was felt to be "too radical." [The hospital carried its commitment right along -- and our meeting was most successful.]

Well, I am -- I suppose -- radical. I'm certainly committed to a full measure of social justice for all. I'm not a preacher but I do tell, in the traditions of Native America and the rural Southwest as well, very interesting stories that have a justice point. And students, whatever their particular background and perspective, always appreciate those much.

Here's a slice from the great days at Tougaloo:

This short excerpt which follows is from an oral history done by a former Tougaloo student of mine -- and a very noteworthy freedom fighter through all of these decades: Lawrence "Larry" Guyot. Originally from Pass Christian, Mississippi, Mr. Guyot took many of my Tougaloo classes -- I gave him a book of speeches by Clarence Darrow -- and he went on to play a major role in the Southern Movement and later in the broad human rights arena in the North. He completed law school and has resided for the last many years in Washington, D.C. Here, he captures the Freedom Spirit of Tougaloo College in the early '60s. This particular oral history of Lawrence Guyot's was done by University of Southern Mississippi. [H.]

"And I met--there was a brilliant compilation of very freedom-oriented, very well-educated faculty at Tougaloo. John Salter was there. He was teaching as much socialism as he was history. He later--I worked with him on a lot of things. He later wrote a great book called Jackson, MS and was very involved in those demonstrations. Worked very closely with Medgar Evers. The ability of that faculty to bring out the best instincts of freedom and liberty and justice was uncanny. I mean, I believe that if Tougaloo--Tougaloo was an oasis for academic excellence and individual and collective liberation. "

Well, ISU ain't Tougaloo by a long, long stretch. [Several of our younger family members have gotten good basic educations at ISU -- there are capable people there -- but they've gotten their social justice from our Family.]

And, I'm not quite like the Boll Weevil -- "just 'lookin' for a home, just lookin' for a place to stay." We have a good house 'way far up on the western edge of Pocatello, a very close stone's throw indeed to USFS and BLM wild lands. Nice neighbors, many friends.

And I do try to keep busy: discussion lists, our massive website [and we may launch another as well], other writing, much correspondence, do what we can social justice-wise, and a talk here, a talk there.

But I miss students.

And I am getting very, very restless.

The stirring of my Native blood, the "Call of the Far Away Hills."

In the Mountains of Eastern Idaho -

Nialetch/Onen

Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]

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OTHER REALLY MAVERICK THOUGHTS BY HUNTER BEAR: