just to go ahead and speak about something that's very sacred to our people and that the water that we see today were at the compliance of blue creek the spokane river here before grand coulee was built this was a very small fast moving river it wasn't a huge of water like this you could forward it fairly easily at spots so it was not like it is today and there were in cap and house that people built all along this river further down they had orchards that were set up down toward seven down toward to reverse that used to be o and small townships that got covered so it's very different to what to see today than what it was i mean it was a lot more of the temper in the and our people used these items to survive and we were known as a river people and when the dam came forward grand coulee dam we lost that lifeways we lost the use of the river as it was meant to be for our people and that's very unfortunate because you know right now we see this this wondrous body of water this huge body of water but it's really back because the dam was built prior to that we had a river that was just filled with salmon and all other kinds of fish for use by our people and we don't have that any longer we had a land where we had berries to be gathered particularly in this area our family used to gather chopped areas and we can't do the top carries any longer because we've also had other resources taken from our labs that created contamination and unfortunately today where we sit is one of the most contaminated arenas because we sit in an hour ina that is on the one bluff was a mine site called share with mine and then down this blue creek drainage is a contamination from another mine called midnight mine midnight uranium mine and so the concerns are that at one time when we had a river that flowed of its own accord and it flowed freely and the people lived along this river in a far freer way then we live today and we lived off we took what we needed we didn't take more than we needed and it kept our people alive for generations and centuries and now there's concerns in terms of what the river has to offer may not always be good and so that's one of the reasons we're here today is to take a look at this arena than the contamination that we're actually standing on and be able to understand why we need to protect the reverse as we do and why we need to protect the lands as they should be protected and that's for future that there was also drainage from a mill site into shamokin creek and so i have not lived in that home as a result of the level of environmental toxins that have invaded our lands and our waterways and shall stands for solvent health care water and land and it's comprised of a group of people tribal members mainly who want to make a difference and bring to the surface some of the concerns that our people face and look at how preventative activities can happen to ensure that we do have a future generation for our people because one of the the concerns that has occurred is that the level of health issues that have impacted the community and social has conducted educational as well as advocacy and also been able to work with other organizations to bring to the surface some of the concerns that we're facing as a communities that live here but also as generations of tribal members who will inevitably you know be born here and then die here so sometimes when these decisions happen that dire impact our people their decisions are made solely by non natives who live off reservation and who will never live here and have no reason to even care about what is occurring to the people for the can in this community that's basically why scholl exists is to look at the impacts and to address the concerns whether it be  the environmental toxins that exist in these waterways in the lands as well as our subsistence foods the move elk deer and our fish and then our medicinal and our berries that we gather through the year to be able to use those free of you know with our minds free that they're not contaminated right now we can't do that we can't know that deer elk have not been impacted by the toxins of the mine sites because there are some open pits that they can get into and then the waterways we don't know the exact nature of the contamination we only know that there's been generations of contamination coming down the strings and so it's very much a concern in terms of looking at how to find support and help the people understand the importance of taking care of themselves and their children in light of these environmental  the community is gathering for another spiritual healing to be able to look at not only health wise but spiritually the impact of the level of loss of our people through decades of genocidal movement that we've had to we were subjected to and yet the tribal the tribe has survived the boarding schools and you know the poor health care that has been provided by the government and the taking the resource the resource drainage we continue to survive and work at developing different means of being able to help the people understand that there are alternative ways that as long as we can look at helping ourselves move forward then we can make a better world for ourselves we know what we need we know what our families need and if we sit and wait for others to do for us then we're going to be waiting a long time and we can't afford that we have to be looking at what helped our people survive and those kinds of things that helped our people survive and shell has been a part of it is cultural revitalization revitalization of the foods by taking young mothers and their children out and going digging and helping them learn and understand we've done that type of work we've conducted educational seminars and brought people forward to be able to help people prepare for the e p a hearings that are necessary to have public and put and help people understand the importance of their voices at the table we also work at helping our council understand by trying to bring in people who will speak to the issues from other areas and help them learn about the environmental toxins and help them by providing them with information about upcoming decisions that are happening for instance with  compensation process for former uranium workers we ask our government to go forward when they do visit in washington d c to be able to  go and meet with the officials that are directly involved and the compensation to former uranium workers and help them advocate for our community because as of yet and this program has gone on since nineteen ninety one we have yet to have one former uranium worker be compensated for the level of sacrifice that they have endured as a result of working in the uranium industry so we've done quite a number of things in that way and in working along with other people other organizations we've been able to gain and garnish support from the southwest as particularly the navajo tribe and from some of the eastern tribes who have been who've dealt with washington d c to help us meet with some of those some of our representatives like senator cantwell and senator murray and really advocate for the needs of our community and also maintain the importance of our waters and our land and to really help us preserve and go back to what we once were which were a strong people that relied heavily on the gifts that the creator provided us initially and that's what we look at yes we know water sacred we know this land is sacred and for generations and centuries our people kept it that way and with the influence of capitalism and commerce and now pure greed we're losing that not only as a people on the front lines but we're losing that as a society because it always seems as if the corporations there say comes before us as people and we need to reverse that and i believe there are movements and through the efforts that are going on right now there is that is happening and we can only move forward and people can really begin to think about what can i do to change this i'm just one person well there's a lot one person can do to change this because this water and this land and all of these gifts that have been provided all of our peoples have survived in our own ways whether it's we eat this kind of me that kind of meat or we know meat we have survived through the things gifts that have been provided us our ancestors knew how to survive if each one of us goes back and looks at what did our ancestors do and are many of the mainstream society their ancestors were farmers who took care of the land who took care of the water just as our tribal people did took care of the land took care of the water and that's all we ask is for people today to think about how it is that i can help what can i do to make it simpler and easier and a lot of it is just living simpler doing the things that we need to do and not go for all of the razzmatazz that the corporations and the greediness puts before us because it isn't working and we know that and as long as we continue to fight for the life of this water as long as we continue to fight for the life of the lands and the birds and the air then we're fighting for our own life we're fighting for that of our family and our community but most importantly for future generations who deserve it more than than any of us right now and there were sacrifices  people did many of our ancestors sacrificed for us so we can be here standing breathing and living and we owe that to the future generations so that's part of what saul has been about is to make sure that we move these things forward and we keep being mindful that it's not so much about us today it's about what comes in the future and that's what we've been taught that water's life it's sacred and we can't give up the fight sometimes with all of the pollution that has occurred you know you feel the pain of the water but you know it's like the river saying i'm ok i'll make it i will care i'll make because the creator has something ahead for us and the creator made this sacred and now i really believe that it will continue and the river saying i'm ok right now i'm ok so used to talk about being so anxious when the salmon were going to come and everybody getting ready and preparing for hard were and preparing for long days of just working and being together being together to do the gathering and being together to harvest the salmon they'd always tell a story like one grandmother told a story about how when she was  twelve down a little false and she would be sent in to little falls before the dam was built down there and there would be pools of water where she would have to go in and she was in essence the bait for the river is so eels would come up and the suction to her legs and she would have to have like a stick and i and i container and get those eels off her legs but it was scary she said exciting at the same time and she knew that she was helping a lot of people because there was going to be good food for a long time for that winter and she would always laugh at being you know the bait she called herself the bait but she talked about you know just that it was a big gathering and it was a time where people were happy they weren't sad about it because they had enough they had more than enough and there wasn't anything to worry about and that they could live with each other in harmony and not feel like they had to live in fear where today it seems that there's more living in fear than in harmony which is unfortunate but it was a time particularly in the spokane area right where riverfront park since and the tribes would gather and they would trade so were there a lot of things that came from different areas like from the coast there were a lot of these shells were imported in and he didn't see that very often but somehow they made their way this direction and they were put on some of the old dresses some of you can tell when you see an old outfit that the trading had happened from quite a distance away and it was a time you know for the people they played they did the stick games and they gathered they just ate food and they shared and it wasn't anything that was any competition or anything like that it was a pit the people gathering from different tribes coming together because that area was a had so many fish that there was an abundance for everyone nobody who went without that was the important thing is that nobody went without the waters and the waterways have offered so much because even the well oath that are along the beaches you know they help make things and it's a piece of will that is always put in front of a cradle board for the child and that's the protector and  so these things are very important even if it's a little piece of will it still has a very significant and important role to play and everything and that piece of willow serves as a protector to a small child a vulnerable child and if we look at ourselves as a piece so well for this river you know we're one piece and we can still make a difference and we can make a difference for this river we can make a difference for this mother earth you know that's been a gift to us and we've been fortunate that we you know we've been able to use this mother earth right now for the gifts provided and i just only hope for future generations to have that as well and that's all we can hope if people have the opportunity to really look into their daily lives remember that as babies we came out of a sack of fluid and our bodies the majority of our bodies our water and every day we intake water to survive we use it for cooking we use it for growing our plants we use it for cleaning we use it for everything that we need and do on a daily basis and if we remember those things how vital and important to us than we should be doing something we're obligated to this water to pay back in some way and help protect help preserve it in its natural state and to really work at doing something even if it's making a phone call to your representative your political representative or if it's stop using the detergent that is creating harm are star using the chemicals that create harm to the environment rather than doing good and also to be able to do i need that law and do i need that golf all those kinds of things make a difference but we each have to decide what it is that we would like to see happen to make it better for us but and so those kinds of things you can do is just use less think about what you're using and get involved in some of the efforts that are already moving forward people are there are people who are doing things to make a difference get involved whatever it might take if it's visiting your local government the government whether it be your tribal council or the city council you know we are all obligated to make a difference and helping to keep our water clean helping our to keep our water sacred and maintaining it as a sacred entity let's get over the fear this fear based approach that we've got to vote for the lesser of two evils let's all join together and say we have the possibility in this country of actually changing the system so it's not the corrupting influence of modish that calls the shots anymore behind something positive get behind real change get behind revolutionary change right because what i'm talking about was restoring the rule of law in this country restoring the notion of equal justice restoring our middle class and get the corrupting influence of money out our government once and for all so that our government party presidential candidate if you study philosophy have anything to do with your changing perspectives on that well one thing i remember that really hit me hard studying philosophy was the fact that we are every one of us responsible for our decisions and we have a responsibility to make decisions to learn about what's going on and them to make the right decisions and act in a way that is balanced and you never there's never a time out you don't get to say well i'm not going to take a stand on the store i'm just going to turn a blind eye that lesson really was for me that turning away from wrongdoing is equivalent to engaging in the wrong doing that unless you stand up against that and say no then you really are colluding wrong doers and we came down to years later i read about the different the three different kinds of people this is so interesting and something really great i think for people to think about when they're making moral decisions and they will secondly there are the bystanders and that i say is the vast majority of people getting bigger who accommodate the wrong doing they don't do anything to stand up against a wrong doing even though they recognize it as wrongdoing but out of fear or intimidation or apathy or they just don't feel like it's their business they're not going to bother themselves then they don't do anything to stop and then there's the third category of people  those are the upstanding years and those are the ones who stand up and don't allow wrongdoing and they do everything they can to stop it when they see it and so i always really felt that i need to be among the up standers and even if it's an unpopular position even if it doesn't jive with what's good what else is going on in the community but we seen so how does how does the allegory work exactly in this well in the play all of a sudden in this little village this guy sees really do stick with you but so he's complaining to this man that he's having a meal with them outdoor cafes and you know this is we've got to do something about this already all these  and this guy is giving me every reason that all it's not not your business if you get involved they might do you harm they're not hurting you why do you care all of the kinds of reasons that we hear people of for not standing up against massive human rights abuses torture wars of aggression what happened in iraq what's happening around the world with the kidnapping and torturing of people and no accountability for it now the president of the united states taking on the authority to point the finger at anybody including u s citizens and have them indefinitely detained for the rest up to the rest of their lives without any charges trial legal representation or right of habeas corpus this were happening in other nations but in this country it seems like everybody is unethical ties we should be in the streets demanding a return to the core of our constitution and a return to the rule of law rather than allowing these authoritarian powers with one branch of government and ultimately beyond individual response to collective response to these things that is such a great question and it's absolutely core to any major changes  progressive movement in this country although there were certainly leaders that never happened because of one person but they also never happened because of anybody in a lot of office it was passionate people pulling together organizing at the grassroots and not letting up until these changes were accomplished think about it the anti slavery movement the women's suffrage movement the civil rights movement the labor movement and much and many of these movements there was a lot of money on the other side there were powerful and wealthy people on the other side and we were still able to move forward as a nation and bring about fundamental changes because of the passion and the tenacity of ordinary men and women and that's what we need now as we've seen recently in the arab world with people putting their lives on the line but organizing at the grassroots using the democratized means of communication that we have now with social media and overthrowing dictators in this country for get off our couches and commit to this and work together and organize we can overthrow the dictatorship of the corrupting influence of money in our government the occupy movement is starting to evolve into something very close i was going to ask you about how you see the occupy movement in terms of this agency of change we're talking about well i think it's such a healthy thing i was wondering throughout the bush administration where is everybody all of this going on the sunday wondering this economic partner this is some of us on the streets are wondering the same thing yeah i mean it it and especially young people because young people are always essential to moving things forward in this country and yet it was really distressing to me to see that not only these massive human rights and constitutional violations but the enormous disparity in wealth in this country the creation of a two tiered not only financial system where you have a very narrow financial elite very wealthy elite and then everybody else struggling to barely get by some people not getting by anymore and then also a two tiered system of justice where the rest of us are held to the law sometimes with an absolute vengeance especially because drug laws are applied but those who are committing federal felonies and undermining our republic are allowed to go scot free and there's no accountability well because i think a movement is a very healthy manifestation least a sign that people are getting it that they care enough to take action and i hope they won't let up and i hope that they'll bring more and more people along with them and they're doing all that they're doing never losing sight that they need to be involved in the electoral process when there are candidates stand for what they want to see in this country opportunity is at the core of all of the people who are not getting the education the employment opportunities we'll never see a closing of that gap but if you'll read paul krugman wrote a great book the conscience of a liberal and he traces the history of this great disparity in wealth and income from before the depression the great depression until well a few years ago when he wrote when he finished the book and tax policy has an enormous amount to do giveaway to the wealthy and it's the first time when this country was fighting a war that we've ever given tax breaks and yet he gave these massive tax breaks to the wealthiest in this country which are still in place and which have contributed enormously not only to our nation's debt and the interest burden that hangs over us each and every year but it has made things so much less equitable between the an outrage and in my view those who are earning passively their income from their investments they ought to be paying as much as those who are out working for a living also on social security it's the most regressive tax in the world people only pay they pay the same percentage six point one percent thirty percent to one hundred six thousand one hundred seven thousand an income and then after that nothing else is paid so if you're making one hundred thousand a year and somebody else is making a million dollars a year they're paying a slight fraction of what you're paying toward social security and stop guaranteeing student loans to some of these for profit colleges that were pumping out a lot of students with diplomas but none of the skills or training to get jobs and so these for republican or a democrat and so we vote for folks just because they still carry that label in fact they are trying those fundamental values that we believed in all these years yes actually i was not going to get into this race because of that very concern and i had a lot of discussions with people i thought about it a lot and then it finally hit me if we allow that consideration to be dispositive that is that the lesser of two evils may not get a lot yet and therefore always reject a completely different way a completely different approach candidate who will stand up for the public interest rather than the corrupting influence of money flowing into washington done will never see change if a vote for either brock obama or the republican nominee is a vote for more of the same it's a vote for the status quo and so if we want to see real change we need to get behind a candidate like me and a party like the justice party that is taking a stand for the public interest and where that the candidate in this instance me has a solid record decades long of standing up both for people's constitutional rights for the rule of law standing up against wars of aggression standing up against the military industrial complex standing up against corruption in our political system i've been working on all of those things and more during most of my adult life so if you want to see that kind of change then you need to get beyond the spirit of somebody being a spoiler i think a corollary to that is where do we draw the line is everybody needs they as an op standard have a line that they'll draw the tall say no more i won't support somebody who for instance has so little regard for the rule of law that as soon as he proposed to grant retroactive immunity for federal felonies committed by certain telecommunication companies in cooperating with the illegal surveillance program on american citizens and then as soon as he gets the democratic nomination he betrays that promise turns one hundred eighty degrees and this is after millions and millions of dollars being poured in to a lobbying campaign by the telecommunication companies and bro voted for the retroactive immunity i don't know about you but i know i can't commit a federal felony and go back and get congress to pass special legislation saying retroactively that i have immunity and then it just gets worse when you draw the line when the president says he's going to get us out of these wars and we end up having more troops in afghanistan significantly more now than we did when barack obama came into office are you going to draw the line on a president says he believes in our constitution and due process but who adds the names of u s citizens to assassination unless the due process clause says the government may not take anyone's life liberty or property without due process of law and yet he just adds them to an assassination list has been taken out there's been a lot of talk about anwar al hakim but hardly anybody mentions his sixteen year old son who was killed by the united states two weeks after laci was killed in cold blood no accountability for that no due process and now finally the latest under the national defense authorization act president obama in two thousand and nine asked for the authority and now he got it and he's signed into law that the president has the authority to point to anyone anywhere including u s citizens now them essential kidnapped detained indefinitely be up for the rest of their lives without charges without a trial without legal representation without the right of habeas corpus it is absolutely anti american it is so subversive to what this nation has always stood for subversive to our constitution i say that if you're going to draw the line anywhere that's got to be if you're not going to draw the line there then what are you going to allow a president to do and still support him besides that but but now the interest is in east asia you know  cin there they're putting troops into australia where they're rattling the saber china which is which is to me one of the stupidest things that could be happening but it's it's a matter of keeping investor's happy keeping the the defense contractors happy and if and the banks happy because the wrong implicated in that and if obama were to were to seriously cut back and invest in people and infrastructure and so on he'd he'd lose his his backing from the real power base yeah yeah and if he did that he would be supporting our nation and the interest of the american people  you're talking about the military industrial complex and jazz and eisenhower warned us about in his last presidential address and we still haven't seem to have quite gotten it yet but the f twenty two system everybody agreed we're going to use it anymore don't need it secretary of defense not take it off the table so these folks are smart enough these contractors they had other contractors or subcontractors in forty four states makes it much less efficient much more expensive to build these weapons but why they do this is so that they can get the representatives in congress to support further funding for these projects because that's how they end up taking the bacon home they want to get the federal bacon federal dollars back to their districts back to their states and so you see democrats and republicans alike whether it's utah's representative rob bishop because a feeler for space servicing the have twenty two's or dianne feinstein and in california because they have contractors bring in a lot of money they fight for little hims of dollars to be poured into these programs that are absolutely useless and all the same time we the american people are suffering our educational system has gone down in comparison with so many other nations people are gone without jobs and job training we ship jobs overseas because of the corporate money that goes into politics because these corporations can make more money by hiring people overseas the american working men and women and their families and up getting message can be sent to washington by supporting a third party or an independent candidate for the we're sick and tired of all of you we're not going to put up with this anymore the democrats republicans alike you betrayed our interests wanting and we're not going to stand for it and this isn't a partisan thing at all it's across the board the people in this country i think understand and that's why there's so much desire shown in the polls for a third party or independent candidate people are understanding that their interests are day after day after day being betrayed by those who we voted in office to represent our interests i would say that unfettered capitalism certainly when we do what we did with financial institutions through deregulation and set it up so that they could sell these these these obscene products these these derivative packages these mortgages that weren't worth anything near their face value and yet they were being sold as triple a that's the point is that under the system of government we're our government supposed to be protecting all of us not simply wiping out the rule book and saying oh you guys go about it however you want we'll the market control the outcome and then the banks understand like you say that they're too big to fail so that they're going to get out by the government things go badly and once again we the american people are the ones who get shafted so you know i i i think the the idea of capitalism without effective regulation whether it's interims of the environment no no one should be able to pour out toxic chemicals to into the water that will harm people in this country and the same thing is true of these toxic mortgages and other securities that exactly we expect those in washington to protect us and when they don't do the job there are to be accountability we hear a lot of people talking about the greed on wall street but there has been virtually zero accountability with respect to those in washington who we elected to go back and represent our interests of the sort of thing won't happen i just finished serving a appreciate first of all you having me on because getting the message out without having to pay for it is so fundamental to our democracy if voters are not informed if they don't know what their choices are we have no democracy anymore and what is being offered by the republican democratic parties and their nominees is has nothing to do with democracy it has everything to do with  cy and that means government by the wealthy that is those who can pay for it get what they want the rest of us are basically enslaved by the state and it's getting to be that way more and more people without jobs where they are underemployed where there aren't the job opportunities that they'd like to pursue in life they don't have the health care coverage that so many young people burdened and many of them will be burdened for the rest of their lives with student that that is now non dischargeable in bankruptcy which we could spend another half hour on not an absolute outrage that that could have ever happened and then  eleven million homes in this country that are underwater they're worth less today than the mortgages that are owned on them there hasn't been this kind of situation as i said earlier that kind of this kind of economic disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of us since before the great depression since the nine hundred twenty s it's never been this bad so you can either go in and vote for republican or democrat just move the players around within this corrupt system or you can choose finally to vote for somebody to vote for a party that represents a completely different way a completely different paradigm and who represents i was rocky anderson joining us today he is the viable third party candidate in this current election as you can tell from where he was coming from he's a very rational guy with a lot of experience and you're going to want to consider him i believe will give out his web site before we're done vote rocky dot org really cool rocky dot org and he doesn't accept campaign contributions of over one hundred b